Bitcoin’s (CRYPTO: BTC) trading price on Jan 1 was $88,764, then it rallied to $97,860 on January 14. However, the Bitcoin price has fallen every month since and now trades at $63,899.
XRP (CRYPTO: XRP), on the other hand, traded at $1.88 on Jan 1, then rallied to $2.41 in the first week of January. But since that rally, the XRP price has fallen all year to $1.01 today. With less than five months left in 2026, where could both coins end the year, and which coin will end the year better?
XRP and Bitcoin’s Price Performance So Far in 2026

Bitcoin traded around $88,764 on Jan 1 and briefly rallied to $97,860. Bitcoin ETFs pulled in around $471 million on January 2, and trading volume exceeded $5 billion. Bitcoin’s price then lost around 15% in February as investors pulled $206.52 million from the ETFs, recovered above $76,000 in April on $1.97 billion of inflows, then lost 20% in June when $4 billion left the funds in a single month.
The price correction in June dropped Bitcoin to $58,566, its lowest level in 21 months. Bitcoin has traded in a narrow band near $63,000–$65,000 for most of July and early August, which is 35% below its January high.
XRP’s price on Jan 1 was around $1.88, then rallied 31% to $2.41 in the first week of January, but XRP now trades 58% below that January peak. XRP had two of its worst months in February and June, losing 16% and 22%, respectively.
XRP rallied to $1.48 on May 14 when the CLARITY Act cleared the Senate Banking Committee. However, the rally faded and XRP ended May at $1.33. It first closed below $1.05 on June 25, bottomed at $1.0381 on June 30, and now trades near $1.01.
| Metric | Bitcoin | XRP |
|---|---|---|
| Opening Price | $88,764 | $1.88 |
| Current Price | $63,899 | $1.01 |
| YTD return | -28.0% | -46.3% |
| 2026 high | $97,860 (Jan) | $2.41 (Jan) |
| Best Month | April, +12.0% | July, +2.3% |
| Worst Month | June, -20.4% | June, -22.0% |
| Current Market Cap | $1.28 trillion | $63.2 billion |
By almost every metric, Bitcoin has had the better year so far, and that is mostly due to institutional support.
Institutional investors now hold 38% of Bitcoin ETF assets, up from 24% a year ago, with hedge funds, pension funds and advisors holding more than $40 billion between them. XRP ETFs are 84% retail, with only 15.9% in institutional hands, and retail money leaves faster than institutional money when markets sell off. That leaves XRP with more downside exposure for the same market conditions.









