XRP Trails 2026 Altcoin Rally With 28% Yearly Drop

ZEC and NEAR Outpace XRP in 2026

XRP price has spent 2026 going the wrong way while two smaller networks compounded: the token sits near $1.38 on Friday, our live monitoring shows, yet it is down 28% for the year, against gains of 120% for Zcash (ZEC) and 190% for NEAR Protocol (NEAR) through Oct. 8. The comparison, set out in a long-term investment analysis published this week, has pushed one variable to the front of the debate: how each network converts rising usage into a shrinking supply. ZEC and NEAR are framed as altcoin candidates whose structures can pass network growth back to holders through burn mechanisms, buybacks or deferred issuance. XRP burns every transaction fee by design, but fees on the ledger are so small that the reduction barely moves the needle. In the analysis' view, that leaves XRP holders with far less of the economic return that growing adoption generates on competing networks, and it explains why a year of headline gains elsewhere has coincided with a steady erosion in XRP's own valuation.

Burned Supply Versus Growing Circulation

The arithmetic behind the criticism is specific. Of XRP's original 100 billion token issuance, only about 14.4 million have been burned to date. Ripple can unlock as much as 1 billion XRP per month from layer-1 escrow holdings, and 32 billion XRP remained locked in escrow as of September 2026. CoinGecko data shows circulating supply climbing from 59.9 billion on Oct. 7, 2025 to 63.1 billion a year later, a steady dilution that the analysis says is not offset by any meaningful holder reward. Zcash runs the opposite setup: supply is capped at 21 million, 80.8% is already circulating, annual issuance runs near 3.9%, and a halving expected around November 2028 will cut that rate in half. An upgrade targeted for Nov. 5 would also hold 60% of transaction fees in reserve rather than paying them to miners immediately, with release possible from 2031, tightening medium-term circulation. NEAR cut its maximum annual issuance from 5% to 2.5% on Oct. 30, 2025, and since February has routed revenue from its NEAR Intents service into market buybacks, which grew from $760,000 in the first quarter to $3.1 million in the third, roughly 4.1 times higher. The analysis also faults XRP's original bridge-currency concept for cross-border transfers, arguing it has delivered less than NEAR's cross-chain bridges alternative, where some legacy routes charge fees above 2% of transferred value. Even so, the source cautions that 2026 returns guarantee nothing, and the two winners' appeal depends on sustained supply discipline and real demand.

Our own readings frame where XRP stands while that debate runs. The token traded at $1.3834 on Friday, up 0.2% since the comparison was published at 14:00 UTC but down 1.3% over 24 hours, with an RSI of 41.67 and a sideways trend. Composite support and resistance levels sit close on both sides: resistance at $1.4411, scored 100/100, and support at $1.3559, also scored 100/100, so a daily close through either line would define the next leg. Perpetual funding holds at 0.0048% with $956.6 million in open interest, and for the 74.7% of accounts positioned long, the structural supply argument carries more weight only if XRP reclaims the $1.44 level first.