Crypto YouTuber and XRP-focused commentator Zach Humphries is pointing to a quietly bold prediction from inside Ripple: a company engineer has called 2026 “an incredible year” for the XRP Ledger, with privacy, programmability, DeFi and zero-knowledge (ZK) interoperability all slated to land on XRPL.
Humphries’ latest video centers on that internal outlook and what it could mean for both institutions and retail investors watching XRP’s stagnant price action.
Programmable Privacy & XRP’s DeFi Move To The Foreground
Humphries highlights a post from a Ripple engineer expressing gratitude to “builders, validators and community” and outlining a roadmap in which privacy and DeFi sit at the core of XRPL’s next phase.
Sponsored
According to the video, the foundation was set in 2025 with amendments bundled into XRPL v3, released in the final month of that year. A native lending protocol is described as “nearly code-complete” but not yet open for validator voting, with that vote expected to begin late in the current month. If activated, it would introduce protocol-level credit markets directly on XRPL.
Ripple is also said to be collaborating with a group called Common Prefix on formal verification of core components, including the XRPL payment engine that underpins every XRP and multi-asset transfer on the network.
Zero-Knowledge, Confidential Tokens & Institutional Targets
The video stresses Ripple’s 2025 roadmap announcement, which framed two main thrusts: a lending protocol and ZK-proof–based privacy.
Humphries says the “next major push” is programmable privacy, with zero-knowledge integrations already under exploration. The first concrete product: “confidential multipurpose tokens” (MPTs), targeted for launch in Q1.
Namely, these tokens are expected to enable privacy-preserving collateral management — something he argues is “a key requirement for institutional adoption of tokenized finance,” particularly as larger players demand transaction privacy more urgently than retail users.
He links this to broader narratives he’s watching for 2026: privacy coins and infrastructure, real-world assets (RWA), and AI-related plays, positioning XRP’s RWA experiments as part of that mix.
XRP’s Price Action, Risk & What XRP Needs To Rebound
Despite the roadmap, XRP’s chart remains underwhelming. Humphries notes a roughly 3% daily pop but says the token is still down about 11% over the past month and stuck in a range.
For him, the technical line in the sand is the $2 level, with a more meaningful trigger around $2.20–$2.25. Regaining that zone, he argues, would mark a real trend reversal and help XRP reclaim major moving averages, including the 100-day EMA around $2.23. On the weekly chart, he sees recent consolidation as a possible bottom but emphasizes that “time will tell.”
The video blends this cautious technical view with optimism about protocol upgrades that are not yet live and still dependent on validator approval. For investors, it frames XRP as a network where the more interesting story is shifting from the token’s price to the ledger’s functionality: native lending, ZK-backed privacy, and institutional-grade collateral tools scheduled to roll out over the next two years.
People Also Ask
In the video, Humphries says the code is nearly complete and that amendments are expected to enter validator voting late this month. Activation would depend on that vote.
No firm price target is given. Humphries focuses on reclaiming $2–$2.25 as a key technical area rather than forecasting a specific high.
He cites “confidential multipurpose tokens” (MPTs), planned for Q1, aimed at enabling private collateral management.
Very. The privacy and MPT roadmap is framed explicitly around institutional needs for confidential, tokenized finance and credit markets on XRPL.
