XRP Price Forecast: Only 41 Lifeforms Predict $5 (Others Are Cats)

by

At approximately 11:47 AM Galactic Standard Time, the cryptocurrency known as XRP did something entirely predictable: it stopped going up and started doing the awkward financial shuffle sideways-and-slightly-down. Having evaporated all its early-year gains faster than water on a hot Venusian sidewalk, it now hovers just above $1.90-like a confused pigeon contemplating the concept of elevators.

XRP Exchange Balances Fall to 1.5 Billion (And Nobody Flinched)

In a move that defied absolutely no expectations, an analyst named Sam Daodu-possibly an android trained exclusively on crypto Twitter-has announced that a shocking number of XRP tokens have vanished from exchanges. Not vanished, mind you, in the dramatic “sent to a parallel dimension” sense, but in the much more mundane “moved to cold wallets where they sit, staring at walls, collecting digital dust” fashion.

According to cold, hard blockchain data (which is usually more reliable than horoscopes but less entertaining), XRP balances on exchanges have plummeted from about 4 billion tokens at the start of 2025 to a measly 1.5 billion by December. This represents a 57% decline-the most dramatic annual escape since the Great Dogecoin Hamster Wheel Incident of 2023.

CryptoQuant, a company that sounds like a rejected sci-fi villain, confirms the trend: Binance and others are quietly running out of XRP to sell. Meanwhile, private wallets and institutional custody suites are quietly filling up-like an all-you-can-hold buffet where the only thing served is “strategic patience.”

Daodu, with the confidence of someone who’s never been wrong (or at least never been caught), claims this scarcity could turn mild buying pressure into explosive gains-potentially 10% to 15% in a matter of days. Because, as we all know, markets are not only efficient but also exceedingly polite when asked to behave.

When layered atop a cool $1.37 billion in ETF inflows since November 2025 (a.k.a. “serious money that doesn’t text you back”), Sam sees the stars aligning-not for another false dawn peaking at $2.99, but a glorious sunrise at $4 to $5. Bold. Optimistic. Possibly delusional. But in crypto, those are usually the same thing.

The Three Futures (Spoiler: Two Are Dull, One Involves Confetti)

Every prophecy needs scenarios, so Daodu obliges with three:

Bullish Scenario: Monthly ETF inflows hit $300-$500 million (call it “Wall Street’s midlife crypto crisis”), and exchange balances keep shrinking faster than a wool sweater in a neutron star’s laundry. Result? XRP rockets to $4-$5. Parades may or may not erupt in Nairobi, Budapest, and the internal servers of Telegram groups.

Neutral Scenario: ETF inflows slow to $50-$70 million a week-the crypto equivalent of a light jog. Exchange balances decline at a pace befitting a sloth on vacation. XRP settles into a cozy $2.50-$3.50 range. It’s not exciting. It’s not disappointing. It’s your uncle’s barbecue sauce-perfectly adequate.

Bearish Scenario: The supply crunch turns out to be less “structural shift” and more “temporary caffeine spike.” Escrow releases flood the market, exchanges refill faster than a cup at a free coffee day, and macro conditions tighten like a belt after Thanksgiving. Price wobbles under $2.00, flirts with $1.60 during panic sell-offs, and spends 2026 in the financial version of limbo-$1.50 to $2.00. Much like elevator music: present, but easily ignored.

At the time of writing, XRP was trading at $1.94-down 4% weekly and 8% fortnightly. That’s 46% below its all-time high of $3.64, achieved during the brief moment last July when everyone simultaneously believed in something. A sobering reminder that in crypto, momentum lasts longer than a garden snail on amphetamines-but barely.

So there you have it. XRP might hit $5. Or it might spend 2026 whispering sweet nothings to $1.70. Either way, the universe continues to expand, dogs still hate vacuum cleaners, and no one has successfully explained what Ripple actually does in fewer than 47 sentences.

Read More

2026-01-24 09:10