Ripple Continues to Expand Globally, But the Price of XRP Keeps Falling. Is XRP a Buy, Sell, or Hold Right Now?

XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) dropped a hair below $1 in August 2026 for the first time since 2024, right before a major rally across the crypto sector sent its price flying by 52% in one week. Even after that boost, the token is still down by 50% over the last 12 months. This is despite Ripple, its issuer, making a handful of acquisitions, expanding its operations globally into new jurisdictions, and signing a swath of new collaborations and pilot programs with financial institutions worldwide.

So does the coin's lack of reaction to Ripple's recent efforts make it a sell, or will the market eventually recognize the progress and rerate it?

Image source: Getty Images.

Ripple has been busy

Ripple has spent this year cutting deals with new partners and incorporating the new assets from its 2025 acquisition spree.

In August, Jeonbuk Bank in South Korea became the first regional bank in the country to roll out Ripple Payments, a money transfer service intended for cross-border transactions. That traction in a real-world setting builds on Ripple's recent purchases, like the $1.25 billion acquisition of the institutional prime broker Hidden Road. Between those two attainments and others, the company's footprint has spread just as rapidly as its capabilities for other financial businesses have expanded.

But absolutely none of those corporate activities are capable of directly influencing XRP's price because of the way the coin is designed, even if they lead to a tremendous amount of activity on its blockchain.

Every transaction on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) destroys just a minuscule fee of 0.00001 XRP, which is far too little to tighten the coin's supply over time or lift the coin's value by making it meaningfully more scarce. For reference, the coin's circulating supply is 62.7 billion XRP, and on Aug. 23, it burned only about 412 XRP as a result of activity.

What's the best move?

If you do not already own XRP, there is not much reason to buy it as long as its transaction costs remain this low.

Its price could still move due to sentiment or macro factors. But as a holder, there is simply no mechanism by which Ripple's successes, or the adoption of the XRPL, might become returns of your own.

If you already own XRP, selling it now, potentially at a loss, is probably not a great idea either.

Regardless of whether it makes sense, the coin is likely to see catalysts provide a serious boost to its price. In particular, in mid-September, the U.S. Senate will vote on advancing the Clarity Act, and if the bill is signed into law, it could be a major boon for the entire crypto sector, especially for coins oriented toward institutional use, such as XRP.

So the answer depends on your holdings. Until Ripple makes changes that anchor XRP's price to activity on its blockchain, such as a shared fee system or a new way to implement buybacks or token burns, new deals for Ripple will keep making headlines without durably moving the coin's price.

Alex Carchidi has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends XRP. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.