Sam Daodu

Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) had climbed to $82,240 early on Friday, its highest since May, after Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said on Thursday he would support holding rates steady this month. The Bitcoin price then fell about 2% to below $80,000 when the August jobs report showed the economy added 162,000 jobs against a consensus of 53,000.

XRP (CRYPTO:XRP) trades at $1.45 after gaining 37% over the past month and 5% over the past week. The XRP price touched $1.70 on August 22 before pulling back, and it had traded under $1 in mid-August before the recovery began. The $2 figure keeps coming up because it is the round number just above where XRP opened 2026 at $1.84, and a level the coin held for stretches of last year. A move from $1.45 to $2 would be a 38% gain. So could the XRP price reach $2 by the end of 2026?

Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) trades near $81,275, down 7% since the start of the year, while the XRP (CRYPTO:XRP) price trades near $1.45, down 21%. Both cryptos are currently in the green, but down for 2026, and XRP has three times the ground to make up. Over the past month the XRP price has gained 37% and Bitcoin 26%, showing XRP is closing the gap in percentage terms even though it started much further down.