XRP CNBC’s January 2026 coverage put the token on the forefront of financial media. The story has continued to grow since then. As of February 17, 2026, XRP is trading at around $1.48It is ranked #4 by market cap, with an estimated $90.52 Billion in market capitalization and $2.92 Billion of 24-hour volume. It is up about 1.7% on the day — a modest move, but the broader XRP price surge in 2026 that CNBC first spotlighted back in January is still very much the backdrop. Brian Sullivan of Power Lunch stated the following:
“The hottest crypto trade of the year is not Bitcoin, it is not Ether, it is XRP.”— Brian Sullivan, CNBC Power Lunch
XRP’s 24% gain since the start the year was far greater than Bitcoin’s 5.5% or Ethereum’s 97%. This XRP CNBC break-out in 2026 briefly pushed XRP past BNB to third place, before the broader markets cooled down into February.
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ETF Inflows drive XRP’s early 2026 momentum
Prior to the hype, Institutions bought before it was mainstream
The XRP CNBC article didn’t just appear. It was backed up by some impressive numbers. Spot XRP ETFs launched in late 2025 had already pulled in $1.37 billion in cumulative inflows by January 2026 — the second-fastest growth rate for any crypto ETF product after Bitcoin — and had not recorded a single day of net outflows during that run. CNBC journalist Mackenzie Sigalos explained the actual events that took place in the weeks prior to the news about the rally:
“During the doldrums of Q4, you actually saw a lot of people piling into those XRP ETFs, which is the exact opposite of what happens with the spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs, where people really move in tandem with the price of the coin.”— Mackenzie Sigalos, CNBC
So investors were, right now looking back at it, buying the dip rather than chasing momentum — a behavior that paid off when XRP ETF inflows kept accelerating into the new year. The contrarian approach is another reason why XRP has been rated as a best crypto performer despite the subdued price in February.
Analysts divided over what’s next
Analyst Victor Olanrewaju CCN notedd that technical factors supported the possibility of further gains.
“If momentum holds and buyers remain active, XRP could break $2.49 and extend toward $2.94.”— Victor Olanrewaju, CCN Analyst
The price level at the moment of this writing makes it seem like a distant target. Standard Chartered also revised its 2026 price target for XRP down from $8 to $2.80, citing broader market cooling — a reminder that XRP price surge in 2026 projections vary widely and carry real uncertainty. Chad Steingraber predicted that if XRP inflows continued to consume around 20,000,000 tokens per day, ETFs would be able to lock up 4.8 billion XRP throughout the year.
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Other developments reinforce the confidence of institutions. SBI Holdings confirmed recently that it owns a 9% stake in RippleLabs. This confirms its long-term support. Ripple has also released a roadmap of development for the XRP Ledger, focusing on DeFi institutional features such as on-chain loans and wealth management. XRP CNBC today coverage continues to tie these fundamentals together as part of a longer story — one that, at $1.48 and a $90 billion market cap, is still very much unfolding.
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Source: watcher.guru
