XRP jumped to nearly $2.40 on Tuesday, extending its early-2026 rally as traders pointed to heavy institutional volumes and a tightening pool of tokens available on exchanges.

The token rose as much as 11% over 24 hours to around $2.38, breaking through a resistance band that had capped gains for weeks. The move came on one of XRP’s strongest volume bursts since mid-December, CoinDesk market data shows.

One reason is flow. Spot XRP ETFs in the U.S. posted $48 million in inflows on Monday, extending a green streak for the products, which have not seen a single day of outflows since their Nov. 13 launch.

Several of the products posted their largest single-day trading volumes on Monday, pushing cumulative inflows beyond the $1 billion mark in less than two months.

On-chain data shows XRP held on exchanges has dropped to multi-year lows, a sign that fewer tokens are sitting idle and ready to be sold into rallies. Traders often read that as a setup where even modest demand can move the price faster than usual.

The rally also builds on a shift in general market sentiment that started late last week.

Traders have been leaning into the idea that the U.S. regulatory environment is turning more constructive, particularly after SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw’s exit and continued talk around market structure legislation expected to move in January.

XRP, which spent years trading under a cloud of legal uncertainty, has been one of the clearest beneficiaries of that change in mood.

For now, the move is also feeding on itself. Breakouts through well-watched levels tend to trigger follow-through buying from traders who were waiting for confirmation, especially in a market where bitcoin is steady and speculative attention is rotating toward large-cap alts.

The key question is whether XRP can hold above the former resistance zone around $2.28 to $2.32. If it does, the market may start looking higher rather than treating the rally as another quick spike.