Ripple (XRP) Peaked at $3.65 Exactly a Year Ago: What Went Wrong?

Remember last year? I mean, you should; it wasn’t all that long ago. From a crypto perspective, it brought some massive gains, crashes, records, intensity, adoption, and everything in between.

Numerous digital assets managed to break their previous all-time highs, including Ripple’s $XRP. In fact, it took the token over seven years to do what many considered impossible just months prior.

Nevertheless, $XRP pushed through, rocketed past $3.40, which was widely considered the all-time high at the time, and charted a new one at $3.65. Oh, and it did so precisely a year ago on this date, according to CoinGecko (some exchanges will show that it was on July 18, but it’s a matter of time difference).

The Next 12 Months

The rally that began after the 2024 US presidential elections gave the Ripple bulls wings to make some major predictions. $XRP’s ability to spike above $3.50 only strengthened their thesis, and massive forecasts began to drop left and right. The more modest ones set $5 as the next target, but the majority envisioned a mind-blowing surge into the low-double-digit price range.

If you have even remotely followed what took place in the following 12 months, you would know the reality was painfully different. $XRP was almost immediately rejected. By early August, it had already dropped below $3, and even though it challenged the old $ATH at $3.40 in the following weeks, it was evident that the momentum had faded.

The token managed to remain at around $3 until the notorious October crash, when it slumped to $1.60 on some exchanges and even to $1.10 on a few others. Although it quickly rebounded to $2.60, the chart below will clearly demonstrate its downfall in the following months, which included permanently losing the $2 support and even challenging the next major one at $1.

It still remains above that coveted line, but current data shows a 70% crash in exactly a year: from $3.65 to $1.08 as of press time. The question is: did something go wrong for $XRP and Ripple, or is it just a classic bear-market correction?

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Ripple’s Moves

Despite the $XRP price nosedive, the company behind the asset has not stood still in the past year. Perhaps its biggest move was the acquisition of Hidden Road for $1.25 billion. Technically, it was announced prior to $XRP’s $ATH, but it was completed later that year, and Ripple Prime launched afterward.

The company also received initial approval to establish Ripple National Trust Bank and, most recently, full authorization in Europe by securing a MiCA license. The former allows it to build federally regulated banking infrastructure, while the latter enables it to offer regulated crypto payments, custody, liquidity, and $XRP services across the EEA.

The firm has also initiated expansions in several other regions, including Australia, Singapore, Japan, and Brazil.

Last but definitely not least, the first $XRP ETFs were greenlit in the US in November 2025, quickly becoming a fan favorite among investors.

Consequently, the past year could be described as one of the most successful fundamentally for Ripple. Yet, its native token has fallen by 70%, which begs the question of whether the market has yet to fully price in these developments.