Ripple (XRP) during Crypto Winters: Here’s what you need to know

How does XRP perform during bear markets and is a parabolic recovery rally on the horizon? Let’s see what history has to say.

Ripple’s XRP is down 15% in the past seven days, 26% in the past two weeks, and over 40% in the past year. Clearly, it is on a downtrend in what is currently considered a bear market in the crypto industry. In the following, we will examine the price of XRP, some of its fundamentals, and try to find out how it holds up during crypto winters.

After all, the popular saying is that we should “buy when there’s blood on the streets,” and it feels like there’s a lot of blood on the streets right now. For example, yesterday the popular Crypto Fear & Greed Index stood at 7 points (extreme fear). That’s right, we’ve rarely seen sentiment so depressed.

XRP during crypto winters

The first thing to consider when it comes to investing in cryptocurrencies is the type of coin you are eyeing. XRP is an altcoin, meaning it is inherently much more volatile than Bitcoin and, by extension, almost all traditional financial markets. Unlike many other altcoins, XRP is tied to a large US-based company that spends millions of dollars on marketing and other activities to generate value for its shareholders and users.

Ripple is building an “ultra-fast” settlement layer for banks and all kinds of financial institutions that can’t use them, arguing that this is the future. You know, no middlemen, 24/7 access, etc. But what exactly has this done for XRP?

Well, the first pronounced crypto winter was felt in 2018. After peaking above $3 and Wall Street calling it the next coin to buy, XRP lost most of its value and traded near $0.3 for most of the bear market.

Then came the bull market of 2021. In April of that year, the price rose to a high of around $1.7 and followed most of the crypto market, attempting a double top in November and eventually losing most of its value again, falling back to $0.35 in the spring of 2022. XRP remained in a range around that level until November 2024, when it shot up in value above $2 and later reached a new level. all-time high in July 2025.

In other words, bottom buyers enjoyed nice returns of almost 10x if they got in during the bear market and sold around the top. Now the price is repeating a similar pattern and cooling off again after a parabolic rally.

You might also like:

At the time of writing, However, if history is any indication, cycles do exist, and Ripple’s own cryptocurrency has somewhat followed these despite a years-long lawsuit that supposedly suppressed its dollar value for a while.

What do you need to know next?

When it comes to the crypto markets, there are literally two types of assets: Bitcoin and everything else, with everything else typically being a lot less sustainable in terms of price and staying power.

As I mentioned above, there is a fully functioning, large-scale, US-based company behind XRP. Ripple is constantly expanding its operations and product offerings. They have issued a stablecoin, RLUSD, and are actively pursuing additional licenses in major jurisdictions.

But XRP itself is not directly tied to the company’s success. The investment thesis, apart from its speculative nature, remains questionable, especially as the sector matures and competition intensifies.

XRP holders receive nothing – in fact, they are purchasing a cryptocurrency intended for transacting. They also made this clear during the trial against the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which stated that XRP is a security.

It does indeed have a steady supply, but much of that supply is also concentrated in the hands of the company itself, which regularly sells it to fund operations.

Is XRP a good investment now? There has been historical precedent in altcoin production producing meltdown rallies after periods of extended downturn; that is absolutely undeniable. However, history should never be used as an indication of what will happen next, and there may be another 90% downside on the other side before there is any relief, so keep that in mind.

Obviously none of the above is financial advice. It is just an observation of XRP’s price performance in previous market cycles, as well as its connection to Ripple.