XRP Slips, but Ripple President Outlines Four Bold Predictions for 2026
Jakarta, Pintu News – The price of XRP fell by 3% on January 21, 2026, despite Ripple President Monica Long expressing a very optimistic view regarding the institutional future for crypto.
According to him, 2026 will be an important turning point, where the global financial sector will move from the pilot stage to full-scale implementation.
Ripple President Monica Long’s Predictions for 2026
Monica Long shared an insightful post with supporting reports, stating that the crypto industry is now entering an “era of production.”
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According to him, the trusted infrastructure and real-world usability of crypto will finally encourage banks, corporations, and financial service providers to move from the trial stage to large-scale deployment.
“After one of the most exciting years in crypto (including for Ripple), the industry is now entering the production era,” Long said.
According to the Ripple executive, 2026 will be the moment of crypto institutionalization, where:
Stablecoins will be a Key Infrastructure
At the center of Long’s prediction are stablecoins, which he says are transforming from an alternative payment channel to a key foundation for global transaction settlement. His view is in line with the Coinbase CEO’s prediction that banks will want interest-bearing stablecoins in the future.
Monica Long noted that major payment networks and fintech companies have started integrating digital dollars into their existing systems.
“Stablecoins will be the basis for global transaction settlement, not just an alternative pathway,” Long said, highlighting the moves by Visa, Stripe, and other major financial institutions that have embedded stablecoins into their payment streams.
While consumer adoption continues, he emphasized that the real growth is in B2B (business-to-business) payments, where companies use digital dollars to gain real-time liquidity and capital efficiency.
The Ripple president also highlighted data showing that B2B stablecoin payments reached an annualized rate of $76 billion last year – up dramatically from less than $100 million per month in early 2023.
He added that the big potential is to free up trillions of dollars of working capital that has been sitting unused on the company’s balance sheet.
Crypto Exposure Goes Mainstream
Monica Long’s second big prediction is that crypto will no longer be viewed as a speculative asset by institutions, but rather as core infrastructure in the financial system.
By 2026, he estimates that around 50% of Fortune 500 companies will have exposure to crypto or formalized digital asset management strategies in their corporate finances.
“Crypto is no longer just speculation – it is now an operational layer in modern finance,” he wrote, predicting active use of tokenized assets, blockchain-based government bonds (T-bills), stablecoins, and programmable financial instruments on corporate balance sheets.
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He also highlighted the rapid growth of crypto ETFs, which are now starting to provide access for institutional investors, although they currently only account for around 1-2% of the total ETF market in the US – showing that there is still huge growth potential.
Capital Markets and Custodians Move to Blockchain
As adoption increases, Monica Long expects capital markets to follow suit. She predicts that 5-10% of global transaction settlement activity will move to blockchain, driven by tokenization and the flexibility of stablecoin-based collateral.
At the same time, crypto custodial services are entering a consolidation phase. With crypto merger and acquisition activity reaching $8.6 billion by 2025, Long predicts that custodial services will be the next big battleground, where commoditization drives vertical integration and multi-custodian strategies.
By 2026, he estimates that more than half of the world’s 50 largest banks will form new custodial relationships officially.
Blockchain meets AI, but markets remain wary
Long also highlighted the convergence between blockchain technology and artificial intelligence , where smart contracts, AI models, and privacy-preserving zero-knowledge proof technology are used to automate corporate financial management, collateral optimization, and real-time risk assessment.
However, despite the grand vision, the market response was flat. The price of XRP actually fell more than 3% to $1.90, breaking back below the $2 mark.
This drop in XRP price reflects the mismatch between short-term price movements and the long-term infrastructure development narrative – even though Ripple is positioning 2026 as a pivotal point for institutional adoption of crypto.
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This content aims to enrich readers’ information. Pintu collects this information from various relevant sources and is not influenced by outside parties. Note that an asset’s past performance does not determine its projected future performance. Crypto trading activities are subject to high risk and volatility, always do your own research and use cold hard cash before investing. All activities of buying and selling Bitcoin and other crypto asset investments are the responsibility of the reader.
Reference:
- BeInCrypto. Ripple President Predicts Crypto Market Cap Will Reach $20 Trillion by 2026, XRP Price to Surge. Accessed on January 22, 2026
