Bitcoin is trading around $90,000 near year-end, with the latest price at $87,815 and a year-to-date decline of over 6%. Major institutions and analysts have issued diverging outlooks through 2026, with projections ranging from a possible downside to $25,000 to long-term targets as high as $500,000. These scenarios reflect differing views on Bitcoin’s role versus gold, regulatory conditions, ETF inflows, and potential boom-and-bust cycle dynamics.

With 2026 approaching, XRP is trading around $1.8 after dropping below the $2 mark and remaining almost 10% lower year-to-date, far from the previously discussed $5 level. The token has been highly volatile, retreating from a yearly high of $3.55 recorded in late July. Some analysts see improved regulation, rising cross-border usage and ETF inflows as supportive, but XRP's large supply, competition and macro headwinds still constrain its path to $5.

U.S. Senator David McCormick disclosed multiple Bitwise Bitcoin ETF transactions executed in late November 2025, with total purchases reported at up to $200,000. The trades, some filed a month after execution, have drawn attention because he sits on Senate committees overseeing banking and digital assets, although they remain permissible under current law.

According to the latest price data on December 27, 2025, XRP was trading at $1.85, down 11% since the start of the year. Based on this move from roughly $2.08, a $1,000 position opened in early January 2025 would now be worth about $890, implying an unrealized loss of around $110 before fees or taxes. This negative performance comes despite major developments in 2025, including the resolution of Ripple's SEC case, new institutional initiatives and spot XRP ETFs in certain markets.

Shiba Inu (SHIB) traded at $0.00000711, down 0.2% over 24 hours, with weekly losses above 10% following a year-to-date decline near 70% and its first weekly death cross. An AI model forecasts an average $0.0000072933 on the first day of 2026, about 2.6% higher, with scenarios ranging from $0.00000705 to $0.00000768.

By late December 2025, an investor who placed $1,000 evenly into Bitcoin, Ethereum, gold, and silver at the start of the year would see the portfolio grow to roughly $1,505. Bitcoin hovered near $87,182 and Ethereum around $2,928.34, both posting year-to-date losses, while gold near $2,928.34 and silver around $72 delivered strong gains. The overall return was mainly driven by precious metals, offsetting the negative performance of the cryptocurrencies.

ETH trades at $2,957 at press time, down more than 3% over 24 hours but up 0.28% for the week. According to OpenAI's ChatGPT, the most likely outcome for January 1, 2026 is around $3,200, with a base case between $3,000 and $3,300, upside toward the $4,000 area, and downside risk toward $2,500.

On December 23, on-chain analytics firm Santiment reported that XRP social sentiment had turned sharply negative even as the token's price stabilized near recent lows around $1.90. Historically, such fear-zone readings and contrarian sentiment extremes around XRP have often aligned with local market bottoms and subsequent rebounds toward key resistance levels such as $2 and the psychological $3 area, although broader crypto market conditions remain a critical factor.

According to cryptocurrency analyst Ali Martinez, a December X post outlines a cycle-based scenario where Bitcoin, after peaking near $126,000, could face a ~70% drawdown toward $37,000–$38,000, with a possible low around October 2026. BTC was $89,506 at press time, up 1.7% in 24 hours, and below its 50-day and 200-day SMAs.