Ripple’s XRP token fell to $1.0216 on Binance on Thursday, November 12, its lowest level since August, despite Chief Executive Officer Brad Garlinghouse spending the past two weeks telling holders that XRP remains the company’s “north star.”

XRP was trading at $1.0355, down 2% over 24 hours and 21% over the week. The token is now 72% below its July 2025 record of $3.65.

The decline began shortly after Ripple’s Swell conference in New York. On October 28, Garlinghouse told holders, “We will never give up on XRP,” responding to concerns that Ripple was shifting its focus toward RLUSD, its dollar-denominated stablecoin.

XRP closed at $1.326 that day. Since then, it has fallen 21.9%, compared with a 10.7% decline for Bitcoin over the same period.

JUST IN: Ripple's $XRP Ledger moves closer to institutional lending launch, paving the way for banks to borrow, lend and generate yield on digital assets – a major step toward transforming XRPL into a full-scale financial infrastructure network. pic.twitter.com/nPtVt8D3Q7 — Whale Insider (@WhaleInsider) November 12, 2026

https://x.com/WhaleInsider/status/2120783848988700899?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

XRP has also weakened against Bitcoin. One XRP now buys 1,425 satoshis, Bitcoin’s smallest unit, marking the weakest ratio since November 2024.

The price decline has renewed questions about what Garlinghouse has promised and how Ripple intends to support XRP while the token continues to trade lower.

Garlinghouse Says RLUSD “Isn’t Competing With XRP”

The central concern among some XRP holders is that RLUSD has expanded rapidly and that Ripple could promote the stablecoin to banks instead of XRP. Garlinghouse has addressed that concern three times since late October.

At Swell on October 28, he said on stage, “We will never give up on XRP.” He described XRP and RLUSD as “very complementary” and said Ripple “will never do something we think is bad for the XRP ecosystem.”

On November 3, Garlinghouse wrote on X, “RLUSD isn’t competing with XRP. It’s competing with other stablecoins.” He added, “Use case matters, and I want those use cases running on the XRPL.”

In a November 4 interview, he said XRP is what Ripple calls “internally our north star” and added, “We only want to do things that are good for XRP.”

Garlinghouse also rejected the claim that Ripple controls the XRP Ledger. He said the company operates only a small single-digit share of the network’s validators, which are the computers that confirm transactions.

Ripple’s Strategy Centers on the XRP Ledger

Ripple’s strategy, as presented at Swell, is to bring more institutional and banking activity onto the XRP Ledger. The company said on October 28 that its products processed more than $16 trillion in transactions during 2025. Ripple expects to finish 2026 with $900 million in annual product revenue. Its announcement is available at Ripple’s official website.

RLUSD has a market value of $2.6 billion, up more than 88% this year. Garlinghouse said roughly half of the stablecoin’s supply was issued on the XRP Ledger. Each RLUSD transfer on that network pays a small fee in XRP.

Ripple also identified Permissioned Delegation and Batch Transactions as new ledger features. The upgrades allow institutions to delegate tasks and combine multiple payments into a single batch.

In addition, Ripple’s 24/7 Returns service for corporate cash uses RLUSD and tokenized money market funds operating on the XRP Ledger.

Garlinghouse said 99.9% of the company’s $16 trillion in transaction volume still moves through traditional banking rails. He said he hopes to report that between 1% and 3% of the volume has moved on-chain next year.

That distinction remains important to XRP holders. Ripple’s business is expanding, but much of the reported growth is reflected in RLUSD and transaction fees rather than direct demand for XRP. Garlinghouse’s response is that greater activity on the XRP Ledger should benefit the XRP token over time. He said he expects XRP to become “the institutional gold standard for crypto rails” within five years.

XRP Has Declined Twice as Much as Bitcoin Since Swell

A comparison of XRP’s daily closing prices after each of Garlinghouse’s three statements shows that none halted the decline for more than a day.

Since October 28, when Garlinghouse said “never give up,” XRP has fallen 21.9% from $1.326, while Bitcoin has declined 10.7%.

Since his November 3 post on X, XRP has dropped 18.9% from $1.277.

Since the November 4 interview in which he called XRP Ripple’s “north star,” the token has fallen 20.7% from $1.305.

XRP rose 2.2% on November 4, the day of the interview, but fell 7.5% the following day as the broader crypto market moved lower.

XRP Price Levels to Watch

On the daily chart, XRP was trading at $1.0338. The token remained well below its 50-day exponential moving average, which gives greater weight to recent prices, at $1.2736. It was also below its 200-day EMA at $1.3440.

The last time XRP traded at a similar level, in mid-August, buying activity emerged just below $1 and pushed the token to $1.70 within days.

The first resistance level is $1.1063, the November 10 high, followed by $1.1699, the November 8 high. Support is at $1.0092, the June 26 low, followed by $0.9862, the August 14 low and the lowest price recorded in 2026.

XRPUSDT 1D chart. Source: TradingView

For XRP holders, Ripple’s message is that activity and adoption on the ledger matter more than the token’s price in a single month. The market response has not yet reflected that argument. The $0.9862 August low is the key level separating a potential repeat of the previous bounce from a new yearly low below $1.

Source: 99Bitcoins