Honestly, if you've been tracking the price of ripple (XRP) lately, you know it feels like a high-stakes poker game where the dealer keeps changing the rules. Today, January 14, 2026, we’re seeing XRP hover around $2.14. It’s a weird spot. Just a week ago, it was flirting with $2.40, and now it’s basically fighting to keep its head above water at the $2.00 support level.
People call it "Ripple" out of habit, but we’re talking about the XRP token here. It's the digital bridge that banks are supposed to use to move money across borders in seconds. You’d think with all the "pro-crypto" noise coming out of Washington lately, this thing would be at $10 by now. Instead, we’re watching it bounce around $2 like a pinball.
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The $2 Tug-of-War: Why the Price of Ripple is Stuck
Why can’t it just stay up?
Last year, 2025, was supposed to be the "Great Unshackling." Ripple finally settled that nightmare of a lawsuit with the SEC. The "security" label that haunted the token for five years is essentially dead, especially with the new Clarity Act draft floating around. This bill basically says if a token is the main asset of a US-listed ETF by January 1, 2026—which XRP is—it’s officially not a security.
You’d think that would be rocket fuel.
But here’s the kicker: XRP has a serious "structural" supply issue. Even though seven different spot XRP ETFs are now trading in the US, locking up over 770 million tokens, there is a massive amount of "dark pool" selling happening.
Large institutions and early-day whales don't sell on public exchanges like Coinbase or Binance where you can see the price drop. They use OTC (Over-the-Counter) desks like FalconX. This allows them to dump millions of tokens without spooking the retail market, but it also acts as a heavy wet blanket on any potential rally.
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Recent Price Action at a Glance
If you’re looking for a quick breakdown of how we got to $2.14 today, look at the last few weeks:
- January 6: XRP hits a high of $2.35. People start screaming about $8 targets.
- January 10: The momentum stalls. It drops back to $2.08.
- January 13: A mini-recovery. It pushes back toward $2.16.
- Right Now (Jan 14): Trading at roughly $2.14, down about 1.3% in the last few hours.
It’s a classic case of "sell the news." The ETF approvals were the big catalyst, but now that they're here, the market is asking: "Okay, what's next?"
The "Moon" vs. The "Floor": Expert Predictions
You’ve got two camps right now.
On one side, you have the bulls like Geoffrey Kendrick from Standard Chartered. He’s been on the record saying XRP could hit $8.00 by the end of 2026. His logic? Institutional inflows into those ETFs could reach $10 billion. Plus, Ripple is launching its own stablecoin, RLUSD, which is already the third-largest US-regulated stablecoin. As more banks use RLUSD for payments, they have to pay fees in XRP. That creates a "burn" effect, slowly eating away at the supply.
On the other side, technical analysts are staring at the "Death Cross" risk.
If the price of ripple falls below $1.90, some analysts, including those at Finance Magnates, think a 40% correction is on the table. They’re looking at the 200-day EMA (Exponential Moving Average) at $2.56. Every time XRP has tried to break that level in the last few months, it has been slapped back down. It’s like hitting a glass ceiling made of reinforced concrete.
"Ripple could not promote XRP for years for fear of being sued. Now they can, but the market has already moved on to newer, shinier toys like Solana." — Bill Morgan, Ripple Lawyer (paraphrased from recent X commentary).
Real-World Utility: Does it Actually Matter?
Most people buying XRP don't care about "interbank settlement." They want a Lambo.
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But for the price to actually sustain a move toward that $8 target, the utility has to kick in. Ripple just got conditional approval to launch the Ripple National Trust Bank. This isn't just another crypto project; it's a federally supervised trust.
If the price of ripple is going to break its habit of disappointing investors, it needs these banking corridors to actually start moving volume. We're seeing some of that in Asia and the Middle East, but the US market is still tentative.
What to Watch This Week
The big date on the calendar is January 15.
The CLARITY Act is expected to be marked up in Congress. If the language stays favorable—specifically the part that protects ETF-linked tokens—it could give the "smart money" the green light they've been waiting for.
Honestly, the price of ripple is in a "show me" phase. The legal excuses are gone. The ETFs are live. The stablecoins are minted. Now, the token actually has to perform. If it can hold $2.00 through the end of January, the path to $3.00 looks a lot more realistic than the doomers want to admit.
Actionable Steps for Tracking XRP
If you're holding or thinking about jumping in, don't just watch the price. Watch the ETF inflow data. Specifically, look at the Bitwise and Grayscale XRP funds. If their Assets Under Management (AUM) keeps growing while the price stays flat, that’s a massive "divergence" that usually leads to a breakout.
Also, keep an eye on the RLUSD market cap. If that stablecoin hits $2 billion, it means the Ripple Ledger is getting busier. More activity equals more XRP burned for fees. It’s a slow-motion supply shock that most retail traders aren't even looking at yet.
Monitor the $2.00 support level closely over the next 48 hours. A daily close below $1.95 would likely signal a deeper retreat to the $1.60 range, while a sustained hold above $2.15 keeps the bullish $2.35 retest on the table for the coming weekend.