The altcoin market has been one of the biggest losers in this bear market, with large-cap cryptocurrencies like XRP, BNB, and Solana taking a significant share of the losses. In fact, TradingView data shows that the TOTAL3 index (which represents the cryptocurrency market cap, excluding BTC, ETH, and stablecoins) has fallen by over $544 billion during this bear market correction.
As highlighted by a popular pseudonymous analyst, this dynamic appears to be changing, with capital repositioning since early February (and TOTAL3’s market cap increasing by around $125 billion in that period). According to the cryptocurrency expert, XRP is one of the altcoins to watch during the ongoing market shift.
Is a return to $3.12 possible for XRP in 2026?
In a Quicktake post about the CryptoQuant platform, cryptoanalyst Darkfost explained that, despite the improving dynamics, several investors continue to bet against the altcoin market at this time. This trend is evident in the XRP funding rates metric, which is currently experiencing its longest, most negative streak in years.
The funding rates metric measures the periodic fee exchanged between traders in the derivatives market for a particular cryptocurrency (XRP, in this case). A negative funding rate suggests that short traders are dominating the market and betting against the price of the asset, capturing an overall bearish sentiment.
Darkfost wrote in the Quicktake post:
Here, funding rates are aggregated over a 30-day period to better capture the prevailing sentiment among derivatives traders.
Darkfost revealed that XRP funding rates on Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, have remained negative for the past three months. This has been the case even though the price of the altcoin rose more than 27% during the same period.
Source: CryptoQuant
According to the on-chain analyst, a strong setup like this, especially after a correction as deep as the 50% drop in Q1 2026, could be a sign that a potential reversal is coming for XRP. Darkfost highlighted that this scenario has occurred in the past (in April 2025), when the price of the altcoin fell to around $1.95, before a bullish recovery that caused a 126% rally.
If history were to repeat itself, the current setting of funding rates could see the value of XRP double in the coming months. A 126% move from the current price would see the altcoin reclaim the $3.2 mark.
XRP price at a glance
At the time of writing, the price of XRP is hovering around $1.42, with no significant movement in the last 24 hours. According to data from TradingView, the cryptocurrency is up more than 2% in the last seven days.
The price of XRP on the daily timeframe | Source: XRPUSDT chart on TradingView
Featured image from iStock, chart from TradingView
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