XRP Price Crashes 24%, Sparking Debate: Was It Meant to Replace Bitcoin?

XRP is facing a dual crisis in February 2026: its price has collapsed by 24% in a week, plunging toward $1.37 as panic selling floods exchanges, while simultaneously, a fierce debate has reignited over its very origins.

A former Ripple director has boldly claimed that the XRP Ledger was created 15 years ago by Bitcoin’s own early developers as a deliberate, scalable successor to Bitcoin’s limited architecture. This clash between a brutal market reality and a profound historical narrative defines XRP’s current crossroads. This analysis explores whether the asset’s deep technical roots as “Bitcoin’s planned upgrade” can provide a foundation for recovery, or if overwhelming selling pressure will push it to new lows, forcing a reevaluation of its role in the crypto ecosystem.

Market Panic: XRP Plunges 24% Amid Heavy Selling Pressure

The trading charts for XRP tell a story of severe and sustained selling. The asset has dropped 24% in just seven days, decisively breaking below key support levels and closing at its lowest price since November 2024. This isn’t ordinary volatility; it’s a capitulation event driven by fear. On-chain data reveals the depth of the panic: transactions executed at a loss have massively outpaced profitable ones. On a single day, February 2nd, loss-making transactions totaled a staggering $2.51 billion, compared to only $567 million in gains. This extreme imbalance indicates that holders are rushing to exit their positions to avoid further losses, a classic sign of a market bottom forming under distress.

Adding fuel to the fire is a dramatic migration of tokens onto exchanges. Over a mere three-day period, more than 97 million XRP, worth approximately $140 million, were moved to exchange wallets. This surge in exchange inflows is one of the clearest signals in crypto markets: it represents supply being positioned for imminent sale. When such large amounts of an asset become readily available for trading, they create a persistent overhang that can suppress any attempt at a price recovery. While the Net Unrealized Profit and Loss (NUPL) metric suggests XRP is entering a historical zone that has often preceded bullish reversals, the current absence of countervailing buying pressure means the path of least resistance remains down.

The Provocative Claim: XRP Ledger, Bitcoin’s “Plan B”?

Amidst this market turmoil, a compelling narrative about XRP’s origins has resurfaced, challenging its status as merely another altcoin. The conversation began when Marshall Hayner, an early Bitcoin developer, observed that Bitcoin still lacks a truly scalable and decentralized version. This opened the door for Matt Hamilton, a former Ripple director, to drop a bombshell: he asserted that “Bitcoin developers literally created the XRP Ledger 15 years ago for this exact reason.” This positions XRP not as a competitor that emerged by chance, but as a purpose-built solution crafted by Bitcoin insiders to solve the very problems—slow speed, high fees, limited throughput—that still plague Bitcoin today as a payment system.

This claim is anchored in verifiable history. The XRP Ledger was co-created in 2011-2012 by Jed McCaleb, a legendary figure in Bitcoin’s early days who founded the Mt. Gox exchange, alongside Arthur Britto and David Schwartz. The argument goes that these pioneers, frustrated by the inherent limitations in Bitcoin’s Proof-of-Work design, engineered XRPL with a novel consensus mechanism (the Federated Byzantine Agreement) to achieve what Bitcoin could not: fast, cheap, and energy-efficient transactions on a base-layer blockchain. This reframes the entire Bitcoin vs. XRP rivalry. It’s no longer a story of an imposter challenging a king, but rather of a dedicated team building the king’s long-awaited heir—a scalable electronic cash system true to Satoshi’s original vision.

The Three Perspectives on the Bitcoin-XRP Relationship

The Successor Thesis: XRP is the fulfillment of Bitcoin’s original promise of “peer-to-peer electronic cash.” Its ledger was designed from the outset by Bitcoin experts to fix Bitcoin’s scalability trilemma, making it the logical technological evolution.

The Competitor Thesis: XRP is a separate, centralized project that has failed to displace Bitcoin. Bitcoin’s scaling is being responsibly addressed via Layer-2 solutions like the Lightning Network, preserving its supreme decentralization and security.

The Complementary Thesis: Bitcoin is digital gold (a store of value), and XRP is digital oil (a settlement layer for payments). They serve different, non-competing purposes in a future financial system, a view gaining traction with institutions.

The Lingering Question: If this scalable solution has existed for 15 years, why hasn’t the Bitcoin community embraced it? This question speaks to the deep philosophical divides over decentralization, governance, and change within crypto.

Why This History Debate Matters for XRP’s Price and Future

The timing of this historical debate is not coincidental; it provides a crucial counter-narrative to the prevailing market fear. For long-term investors watching their portfolios bleed, the idea that XRP is a deliberately engineered solution with foundational ties to Bitcoin’s creation offers a pillar of fundamental conviction. It transforms the asset from a speculative token to a project with a deep-rooted, utilitarian purpose. This narrative can be the difference between panic selling at a loss and holding with patience during a downturn.

Furthermore, this origin story is critically important for institutional adoption. When asset managers like Franklin Templeton note XRP’s growing “institutional credibility,” they are bolstered by a respectable, technically-sound pedigree. It’s far easier for a financial institution to justify an investment in a project presented as “Bitcoin’s scalable sibling” than in just another altcoin. High-profile bets, such as Bitcoin trader James Wynn’s $25 million XRP investment based on its potential to “revolutionize banking,” align perfectly with this infrastructure-level narrative. In a bear market, a strong, credible story is essential armor against total loss of confidence.

XRP Price Prediction: Key Levels to Watch for Recovery or Further Loss

With XRP trading near $1.44, the technical setup presents clear lines in the sand. The immediate battle is for the $1.37 support level. A decisive break and daily close below this threshold would likely accelerate selling, with the next major target at $1.28. Such a move would confirm a breakdown of the broader market structure that has been in place for over a year and could trigger a deeper search for support.

For the bulls to mount any meaningful recovery, the first critical step is to reclaim the $1.58 level. Regaining this as solid support would signal that the worst of the panic selling has been absorbed and that a new base is forming. From there, a push toward $1.70 becomes plausible. However, a sustainable recovery requires a shift in the on-chain dynamics. Key signals to watch for include: a slowdown in the flow of XRP to exchanges, a rebalancing where profitable transactions begin to match or exceed loss-making ones, and ultimately, data showing large wallets are accumulating at these lower prices. The historical NUPL zone suggests a turning point is near, but price action must confirm it.

What Is the XRP Ledger? The Technology Behind the Token

What is the XRP Ledger (XRPL)? The XRP Ledger is an open-source, decentralized blockchain that launched in 2012. Its native cryptocurrency is XRP. Unlike Bitcoin, it does not use mining. Instead, it employs a unique consensus protocol called the Federated Byzantine Agreement (FBA), where a network of independent, trusted validators agree on the order and validity of transactions. This design allows for remarkable performance: settlements in 3-5 seconds, transaction costs at a fraction of a penny, and the capacity to handle thousands of transactions per second.

Addressing the Centralization Question: Critics often argue that XRPL’s validator set is more centralized than Bitcoin’s permissionless miner network. Proponents counter that the validator list is diverse and decentralized for its intended purpose as a global settlement rail, and that its efficiency and lack of energy waste are transformative advantages. The network has no central authority controlling transaction processing.

Primary Use Case and Vision: XRPL is built explicitly for moving value. Its flagship use case is facilitating fast, low-cost cross-border payments, aiming to disrupt legacy correspondent banking systems like SWIFT. This focus on institutional-grade financial utility starkly differentiates it from platforms designed for general smart contracts or purely as monetary assets.

A Test of Narrative Versus Market Mechanics

The first week of February 2026 presents XRP with its most significant test in years. On one side, the cold, hard mechanics of the market—flooding exchange balances, deep losses, and broken support—paint a bleak picture with a clear risk of further decline to $1.28. On the other side, a powerful and resurrected narrative about its genesis as Bitcoin’s scalable heir provides a foundational story of purpose and long-term potential.

In the short term, market mechanics typically overpower narrative. The weight of sell orders will determine the next price level. However, for investors with a longer horizon, this confluence of events creates a fascinating scenario. The “generational accumulation zone” signaled by on-chain metrics coincides with a forceful reminder of why XRP was built. The outcome will hinge on whether enough capital believes in that “why” to step in and buy while others are fleeing. Whether XRP stabilizes or continues to fall will offer a clear lesson in what truly drives crypto asset prices in a crisis: pure fear, or enduring belief in a foundational idea.