Brad Garlinghouse Calls 2026 ‘Most Bullish Year,’ XRP Price To $2.75?

Key Insights

• Brad Garlinghouse says 2026 could be most bullish year for XRP price as major institutions like BlackRock, Vanguard and Franklin Templeton deepen their exposure.
• Analysts note XRP must break above $2.28 to unlock a potential run toward $2.75, while chart signals still show pressure under key regression bands.
• Early ETF inflows hint at growing institutional appetite for XRP, but traders warn a failed breakout could send the token back to multi-month support.

Ripple XRP token price is drawing renewed attention in the news, after CEO Brad Garlinghouse told investors that 2026 could be crypto’s “most bullish year” yet.

In late 2025 XRP was trading around $2.15–$2.20, and traders are now eyeing a potential move past $2.28. Garlinghouse said Dec. 3, 2025 at Binance’s Blockchain Week,

“As we go into 2026, I don’t remember being this optimistic in the last handful of years.”

That bullish tone, along with recent institutional developments, has fueled talk of an XRP price breakout toward the next major resistance near $2.75.

Analysts note that if XRP can clear roughly $2.28, it would open a path to earlier 2025 highs around $2.75. XRP price had spiked to $3.35 in mid-August before retreating below $3.

Brad Garlinghouse 2026 Outlook Fuels XRP News

Garlinghouse’s comments came amid industry-wide optimism. He argued that improving U.S. regulatory clarity and institutional flows will drive crypto higher.

As an example, he noted that Vanguard, long skeptical of crypto,  has now allowed its clients to buy regulated crypto ETFs.

Ripple CEO pointed out that the U.S. (22% of global GDP) is no longer “openly hostile” to crypto, and that major financial groups are reversing their stance.

This shift underpins the idea of a big 2026 rally. Such statements add to XRP news stories, even if they focus mainly on Bitcoin and broader crypto.

Indeed, XRP has been part of recent bullish news headlines. At Ripple Swell event in November 2025 the company announced a $500 million raise at a $40 billion valuation, partnerships with Mastercard and Gemini, and new products like a crypto prime brokerage.

The day of those announcements XRP price surged about 7%, trading as high as $2.40.

Brad Garlinghouse said the company is doubling down on building “trust, utility, and liquidity on XRP,” and he predicted a rally once U.S. spot XRP ETFs start trading.

Those remarks, along with applying for a national bank charter and a Fed master account – reinforce a narrative that Ripple is laying an institutional foundation.

XRP Price: Recent Moves and Breakout Potential

After peaking near $3.35 in mid-August 2025, XRP has consolidated in the low-$2 range. In early November, it traded roughly $2.21–$2.40.

Technical analysts point to resistance around $2.28. On Dec. 2 the token gained about 6% intraday and closed around $2.18, a rebound from its early-December lows.

If XRP can convincingly break above $2.28, analyst Ali Martinez sees a bullish target near $2.75, which was a ceiling in late 2024 and 2025.

For context, as per XRP news reports, the coin averaged only about $2.03 in Dec 2025, down from $2.16 in Nov and well below July’s $3.00.

Sustained trading volume and crypto market strength would be needed to fuel such a run.

On-chain data have been encouraging. The new U.S. XRP ETFs (launched Nov. 13, 2025) have attracted roughly $750–800 million in net inflows so far.

Futures open interest in XRP has also ticked up. Those institutional flows support the thesis that XRP price may have an underlying bid.

Still, some analysts caution that the Ripple native coin faces competition from stablecoins and other payment networks, so a “clean break” above $2.27–$2.30 is critical to sustain momentum.

With all these factors in play, XRP price action in early 2026 will be telling. If XRP closes decisively above the $2.28–$2.30 zone on strong volume, it could convincingly head toward $2.75.

In that scenario, it would validate Garlinghouse’s bullish outlook, as institutions pour in via ETFs and Ripple’s rails see broader use.

However, failure to hold support around $2.15–$2.20 could keep XRP rangebound.

For now, Ripple’s aggressive institutional push and rhetoric from Brad Garlinghouse give investors something to watch.

However, only confirmed price action will tell whether 2026 truly becomes the crypto’s “most bullish year.”