XRP starts 2026 off strong, overtakes BNB as 3rd largest crypto once again

XRP opened 2026 by reclaiming the third-largest cryptocurrency spot by market value, pushing BNB aside yet again on the second trading day of the year.

This of course follows a stretch of repeated surges throughout 2025, with XRP doing the same thing in January 2025 after hitting $2.83 and seeing its market value smash $163 billion.

July brought another market-wide rally that carried the Ripple-backed token to a new all-time high of $3.55, briefly moving it ahead of Tether’s USDT, the crypto with #3 at that time.

In October 2025, XRP again passed BNB while it was trading near $2.63 before slipping back down to end the year.

Markets trade higher as crypto sentiment stays tense

At press time, XRP was priced around $2.40 on Coinbase while Bitcoin continues to struggle to hold above $90,000, as the Crypto Fear & Greed Index drops to 24 to start the year, meaning “extreme fear.”

According to an X post from Santiment, bearish crypto comments running 20% to 30% above November levels.

Meanwhile, Cryptopolitan reported that U.S. stocks ended Friday higher. The S&P 500 closed up 0.19% at 6,858.47, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 319.10 points, or 0.66%, to 48,382.39.

The Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.03% to 23,235.63. In the first session of the year, the Nasdaq later rose 0.6%, led by chipmakers including Nvidia, Broadcom, Micron, and Intel, each gaining between 3% and 6%. Silver advanced 3%, while gold and copper posted smaller gains.

Past sentiment extremes have appeared before rallies in XRP that exceeded 1,000%. Data cited by CoinGecko shows machine-learning models reaching 70% to 91% accuracy in predicting crypto price direction when sentiment reaches clear extremes.

The current mood follows a two-month slide of about 31%, leaving the token exposed if risk appetite weakens.

Crypto-linked stocks also rallied a bit, as Bitcoin miners keep their focus on AI infrastructure, with Hut 8, CleanSpark, and TeraWulf all rallying by up to 10%.

Cipher Mining and IREN rose 8%. Strategy and Coinbase gained more than 3%, Galaxy Digital climbed 7%, and Circle Financial added 4.5%.

Also, crypto exchange data showed KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in trading volume during 2025, averaging $114 billion per month. Spot and derivatives trading each exceeded $500 billion, marking its strongest year. Tether also began 2026 by adding 8,888.88 bitcoin to its treasury. Chief executive Paolo Ardoino said, “The allocation reflects Q4 profits,” a transfer worth roughly $780 million at current prices.

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