Ripple is heading for its best year ever while XRP faces its worst since 2022

Ripple announced on Oct. 28 that it is on track to exit 2026 with a record $900 million annualized product revenue run rate, driven by expanding institutional partnerships and growing demand for its financial infrastructure.

The blockchain company's performance is fueled by organic growth and the integration of businesses acquired during its expansion into financial services, which expanded its operations beyond cross-border payments into institutional trading, financing, clearing, and corporate cash management.

Ripple President Monica Long celebrated the development, describing the company's performance as its strongest on record.

The company's strategy is to bring financial services traditionally offered by separate providers onto integrated infrastructure, using blockchain technology and digital assets such as XRP.

Ripple's products, including Ripple Prime and Ripple Treasury, enabled more than $16 trillion in transactions in 2025, reflecting activity across its expanded financial services portfolio.

The number of customers and partners using multiple Ripple products has also tripled this year, with more than 1,700 institutions and businesses now using its infrastructure.

Major customers and partners include Standard Chartered, DBS, HSBC, Robinhood, and BNY Mellon.

Ripple's payments network is also approaching $150 billion in cumulative transaction volume, while its RLUSD stablecoin has grown more than 88% this year to a market capitalization of $2.6 billion.

The company has also expanded its regulatory footprint, securing more than 85 licenses across its operations.

Its latest milestone came on Oct. 26, when the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted final approval for Ripple National Trust Bank, authorizing the federally supervised institution to manage RLUSD reserves and provide fiduciary digital asset custody services.

These developments have expanded Ripple's revenue opportunities across traditional and digital finance, allowing it to offer institutional clients a broader range of payments, trading, financing, and treasury services.

XRP faces steepest annual decline since 2022

Despite Ripple's record year, XRP is heading toward its steepest annual decline since 2022, amid a broader downturn in cryptocurrency markets.

CryptoRank data shows the token has lost 28.8% of its value in 2026, extending last year's 11.6% decline.

The losses follow a period of strong performance, with XRP gaining 82.5% in 2023 and 235.7% in 2024, but that momentum has faded this year.

The cryptocurrency has fallen from a high of $2.40 to below $1 in August before recovering to around $1.31 as of press time.

The weakness has coincided with a difficult year for the broader cryptocurrency market, led by Bitcoin's sharp retreat from its October 2025 record high of approximately $126,000.

At one point this year, Bitcoin plunged below $60,000, wiping out more than half its value from that peak as macroeconomic uncertainty, elevated interest rates, and weakening investor demand weighed on digital assets.

Although the world's largest cryptocurrency has since recovered above $80,000, it remains roughly 36% below its record high and has lost approximately 8% this year.

Other major cryptocurrencies have suffered similar setbacks, with Ethereum declining about 20% and Solana shedding 17% year to date.

The downturn has left XRP facing another difficult year, despite Bitcoin's recovery and Ripple's growing commercial footprint.

If its losses persist through December, XRP would record its worst annual performance since its 59.2% plunge in 2022.

It would also mark the cryptocurrency's first consecutive losing years since 2018 and 2019, when it declined 84.5% and 47.1%, respectively.