XRP is seen by some as having strong long-term upside potential, but a prominent Japanese market analyst warns it is difficult to talk about “generational wealth” until a key resistance level is broken.

Blockchain outlet The Crypto Basic reported on Jan. 5 that claims have been spreading in the XRP community that XRP could bring generational wealth to long-term holders. Market observer Digital G said in December last year that XRP could be the biggest opportunity for generational wealth, and Coach JV and others have presented similar optimism.

But Japanese analyst Han Akamatsu said XRP has a price zone it must clear to meet those expectations.

Akamatsu said a long-term wealth accumulation scenario is hard to establish if XRP fails to clearly break above $2.5, which has acted as a strong resistance level. That price zone repeatedly blocked gains as XRP tried to rebound in October and November 2025.

XRP rebounded from a low of $2.18 to $2.6 at the time, but later slipped back to around $2. It also faced repeated resistance near $2.58, and fell below $2 during a correction in December.

Akamatsu said XRP has yet to break out of a descending channel formed after a peak of $3.65 on July 2025. He said it failed to break above the channel’s upper trendline even after rebounding more than 16 percent in five days in early 2026. “XRP has not escaped anything yet,” he said, adding it was difficult to view the current rebound as a structural trend reversal.

He also said the $2.5 area is where the 200-day exponential moving average (EMA) and the 1-week linear weighted moving average (1WHMA) overlap, making it technically a very strong resistance point. He added that the 1WHMA reflects long-term trends more sensitively, underscoring the importance of that price level.

Akamatsu said XRP must first break above resistance near $2.3 at the top of the descending channel to retest $2.5. He warned that even after exiting the channel, another rejection at $2.5 could be followed by a bigger correction.

He concluded that a cautious approach to XRP is needed in the short term, and maintained that the current structure still looks close to a bearish phase.