XRP jumped to nearly $2.40 on Tuesday, extending its early 2026 rally, as traders pointed to large institutional volumes and a shrinking pool of tokens available on exchanges.
The token rose as much as 11% in 24 hours, to around $2.38, breaking a resistance band that had limited gains for weeks. The move came in one of XRP’s strongest volume explosions since mid-December, market data from CoinDesk shows.
One reason is flow. The US XRP spot ETFs recorded $48 million in inflows on Monday, extending a green streak for the products, which have not seen a single day of outflows since their launch on November 13.
Several of the products recorded their highest single-day trading volumes on Monday, pushing cumulative inflows past the $1 billion mark in less than two months.
On-chain data shows that XRP held on exchanges has fallen to multi-year lows, a sign that fewer tokens are dormant and ready to be sold in rallies. Traders often interpret this as a situation where even modest demand can cause the price to change faster than usual.
The rally is also based on a change in overall market sentiment that began late last week.
Traders have been leaning toward the idea that the U.S. regulatory environment is becoming more constructive, particularly after the departure of SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw and continued talks over market structure legislation that is expected to advance in January.
XRP, which spent years trading under a cloud of legal uncertainty, has been one of the clearest beneficiaries of that change of mood.
For now, the measure is also being fed back. Breakouts through well-watched levels tend to trigger follow-up buying by traders waiting for confirmation, especially in a market where bitcoin is stable and speculative attention turns to large-cap alternatives.
The key question is whether XRP can hold above the former resistance zone between $2.28 and $2.32. If so, the market may begin to look upward instead of treating the rally as another quick rally.
