XRP’s Current Predicament Is Only Temporary; These Factors Will Drive It To $18

XRP has spent the past few months in a frustrating position, with its price still trading around the same zone that many holders expected it to leave behind long ago. However, XRP enthusiast Luke believes this phase should not be mistaken for the end of the asset’s long-term story. 

In a post on X, he described the current $1.40 XRP as being in temporary hibernation and said that a move to $18 or $25 could represent only an intermediate stage if market expansion and adoption continue.

The XRP price has spent the better part of 2026 trapped in a range between $1.30 and $1.45, down more than 60% from its January high and about 25% below where it started the year. This has created a disconnect between Ripple’s institutional momentum and XRP’s price performance. 

Taking to the social media platform X, Luke noted that XRP currently trading around $1.40 does not reflect what it could become if the next stage of crypto adoption is led by regulated financial products. Therefore, the current price action should be viewed as a temporary hibernation phase before the intermediate phase, and then the final price phase.

This is why the analyst noted that XRP will trade anywhere between the $18 and $25 range in an intermediate phase, but this is not the final destination. In his view, XRP’s current predicament is only temporary because the market has not fully priced in what Ripple has been building behind the scenes. 

The final part of the price outlook goes beyond the $18 target, and the prediction is that XRP could eventually move into triple-digits once institutions fully awaken and the infrastructure around Ripple and XRP is switched on.

Luke’s prediction places XRP trading at five digits on the higher end. That higher-end claim is speculative, especially his reference to $10,000 XRP, which would require an extreme restructuring of global liquidity and market valuation assumptions. According to him, this price target is not fantasy. It is global liquidity at scale.

Speaking of global liquidity at scale, Ripple has long positioned XRP as its North Star. That vision has become harder to ignore in 2026, as Ripple has secured major ties with institutions such as Germany’s $1.6 trillion Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, and Mastercard’s $9 trillion payment network. Yet despite these developments, the price has remained mostly unmoved.

Luke’s reasoning goes along with the outlook of many members of the XRP community who are predicting extravagant price targets for the cryptocurrency. They have faced criticisms from other realistic traders, but this hasn’t stopped the bullish expectations. These bullish price expectations see the XRP price rallying far above its current all-time high levels and into price targets ranging from $10 to as high as $10,000.