XRP Developer Predicts 5,000 XRP to Equal 1 Bitcoin by 2026

The core of the prediction by Bird, who posts as @Bird_XRPL and is involved with the meme coin DROP, is a specific ratio trade: 5,000 XRP acquiring one Bitcoin. He anchored this with an example, stating “5,000 * $27 (XRP) = $135K (BTC).” This math implies a future where XRP trades at $27 and Bitcoin at $135,000. The significance lies not just in the absolute price targets but in the relative performance. For this ratio to hold, XRP would need to appreciate significantly more than Bitcoin from current levels, representing a major shift in market valuation between the two assets.

Bird frames this not as a simple beta move where XRP rides Bitcoin’s coattails, but as a “meaningful repricing of XRP’s utility narrative.” This suggests the forecast is predicated on the market recognizing and valuing XRP’s underlying technology and use cases independently. The call positions the coming years as the end of a “7–8 year suppression” for XRP, which he attributes largely to past legal uncertainties, and the beginning of what he terms “true price discovery.”

Beyond the headline-grabbing ratio, Bird’s broader thesis, detailed in a January 11 post, advocates a fundamental shift in how investors view XRP. He contrasts it with traditional savings, noting that bank deposits yielding 4–6% often fail to outpace inflation, eroding the purchasing power of currencies like the US dollar and British pound over time. “Your money often grows on paper while quietly losing value in the real world,” he wrote.

In this context, Bird positions XRP as an alternative store of value, but one intrinsically tied to expanding real-world utility rather than mere scarcity. He points to the resolution of legal overhangs and the maturation of the XRP Ledger ecosystem, highlighting “cross border payments, institutional adoption, stablecoins like RLUSD, and real world assets being tokenised on chain.” The trade-off, as he frames it, is accepting the custody and counterparty risk inherent in self-held digital assets in exchange for potential upside and removal of reliance on traditional banks. “That’s why I personally treat XRP as a long term savings vehicle rather than a short term trade,” Bird concluded.

Bird ties his long-term outlook to immediate technical and macroeconomic factors. He identifies $2.70 as a critical technical inflection point for XRP, arguing that “above $2.70 $XRP opens the path to all time highs and beyond.” Clearing this level, he suggests, could trigger a rapid price ascent.

This technical setup is presented alongside a convergence of upcoming catalysts. Bird cited a “massive week for XRP,” pointing to US inflation data (CPI and PPI) as potential volatility events and highlighting the scheduled release of a US market structure bill. “The charts are aligning. The macro is aligned,” he wrote, suggesting that favorable moves in these areas could propel XRP past his identified key threshold. At the time of the original report, XRP was trading at $2.06.