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…