'This Is the Wildcard,' Says Top Investor About XRP Heading Into 2026

XRP (XRP-USD) investors can easily get distracted by traditional metrics like token price and trading volume – figures that have remained fairly stable in 2025 following a surge around the November 2024 presidential election. With spot XRP ETFs now in the mix, more sophisticated investors might track cash inflows into the leading Canary XRP ETF.Claim 50% Off TipRanks Premium and Invest with Confidence Unlock hedge-fund level data and powerful investing tools designed to help you make smarter, sharper decisions Stay ahead of the market with the latest news and analysis so your portfolio is always positioned for maximum potential However, Anders Bylund, an investor who ranks among the top 1% among his peers, finds a different metric far more compelling. XRP was specifically designed to facilitate fast, low-cost international payments. While there are a few secondary applications, cross-border transactions remain the "meat and potatoes" of XRP investing. "So for true long-term investors," says Bylund, "one figure stands head and shoulders above all the others. You should watch the daily number of XRP payments in 2026, as this figure sets the tone for XRP's real-world usage." The 5-star investor doesn't mean the total number of transactions or their dollar value. Daily transaction counts include everything from account creation to smart contract setup, so payments are just a small subset. Similarly, the value of individual payments swings wildly – from a few dollars to millions – making average payment value an unreliable metric. For example, as of December 8, the average payment over the past 30 days was $3,207, with daily transactions ranging between 900,000 and 1,000,000. Total payment volume, meanwhile, fluctuated dramatically, from $396 million to $17 billion, showing that high transaction counts don't necessarily correspond to high monetary movement. Occasional anomalies further highlight this volatility. On December 31, 2023, there were 6.0 million payments totaling just $275 million – less than $46 per transaction – driven by a brief, unintended fee-free period exploited to embed data on the XRP ledger. Episodes like this, says Bylund, show why average payment value and total volume aren't meaningful for long-term analysis. The key metric to track, then, is the daily number of genuine payment transactions, which has stayed elevated since last year's elections but shows a slight downward trend in 2025. Sustainable growth in this measure, says the investor, will determine XRP's potential as a mainstream international payment system. "Looking ahead to 2026, this metric will tell you whether XRP has truly broken through as a mainstream payment rail or remains stuck in crypto-speculation limbo," Bylund summed up. "Watch for consistent daily payment counts above 2 million; doubling from last year's consistent plateau will show you that XRP has arrived in the mainstream financial world." (To watch Bylund's track record, click here)