Ripple’s Best Year Ever – So Why Is XRP Still Down YTD?

XRP entered 2025 at $2.32 but it’s now at $2.20 – why so?

From massive acquisitions to the closure of the SEC lawsuit and, most recently, the launch of spot ETFs, 2025 has been quite successful for Ripple and its ecosystem.

Additionally, XRP tapped a new all-time high in the middle of the year, but it’s now trading below its January 1 price – so why isn’t it thriving?

Ripple’s Stellar 2025

Perhaps the most anticipated and important news for Ripple this year came in March when its CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, announced the official end of the prolonged legal battle against the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Although it took a few more months and some hurdles for the case to go down in the history books, it was categorized as a win for Ripple, given the small fee it had to pay compared to the $2 billion initially sought by the regulator.

This was a pivotal moment for the company, which opened the door for some big moves. Just a month after Garlinghouse’s triumphant statement, Ripple announced the acquisition of the prime broker Hidden Road for $1.25 billion. Months later, the platform was renamed to Ripple Prime and aims to service institutional clients.

Reports also emerged that the firm has led an effort to raise at least $1 billion through a SPAC to create a digital asset treasury (DAT) company focused on accumulating its own token, XRP. It separately announced a $1 billion acquisition of treasury software provider GTreasury to strengthen corporate finance relationships.

Another major move this year was the purchase of Rail for $200 million, which is a platform built to help businesses move money with “speed, transparency, and trust” using stablecoins and fiat.

The closure of the lawsuit with the SEC also meant that the overall regulatory landscape around Ripple and its token had improved drastically. This became even more evident in November when the first spot XRP ETF with 100% exposure to the asset went live in the US. Canary Capital’s XRPC broke the 2025 record for trading volume on its debut day.

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Moreover, three additional XRP ETFs followed suit, and the four products have attracted more than $660 million in net inflows in just a few weeks of existence.

Why Is XRP Down Then?

All these developments mentioned above occurred in the span of less than a year. So, one should assume that this particular year would be highly bullish for the underlying asset, right? After all, just the Hidden Road acquisition was described as a “game-changer” for XRP, while experts predicted a massive price expansion once the SEC lawsuits ended and the ETFs went live for trading.

And it was, at least until a point. The cross-border token matched its 2018 ATH in January 2025, dumped hard in the following months, but skyrocketed again in July to break it and set a new one at $3.65. So, if the year had ended at that point, it would have been a success.

However, what followed was quite the opposite. XRP went on a months-long correction that resulted in a couple of price drops below $2. Although it has managed to reclaim that level, it now trades at $2.20, which is actually lower than its 2025 entry price of $2.32.

So, why is this? Why isn’t the underlying asset moving in line with the company behind it, which had arguably its best year ever? Perhaps the most evident answer lies in the old narrative – buy the rumor, sell the news. XRP began its massive ascent after the US elections last year with the hope of a new, more regulatory-friendly regime in its home country.

The promised internal changes at the SEC also led to a massive rally, but once the lawsuit was indeed closed, there were no fireworks. There was no rally after the first ETFs saw the light of day; just the opposite: XRP dropped.

Consequently, it doesn’t appear as if XRP’s fundamentals are out of shape. It’s just that financial markets, and crypto in particular, are highly emotional forces still mainly driven by sentiment and crowd expectations.