XRP Holds Its Breath as Senate Vote Looms and Ripple’s Backend Grows
Published on 07/22/2026 at 06:12 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
The clock is ticking for XRP. With the US Senate set to vote on the CLARITY Act on July 23, the token is trading at $1.14, barely above its 50-day moving average of $1.12. That 1.92% cushion is thin — and the gap to the 200-day average of $1.42, a chasm of roughly 19.5%, underscores just how far the broader downtrend remains from being broken.
The legislative drama has kept the market in a holding pattern. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Bloomberg the CLARITY Act is on the "one-yard line," suggesting a deal is close. The White House has agreed to an ethics clause — described by an official as the "most comprehensive ethics rule in history" — that would ban federal employees from issuing or offering digital assets, with enforcement by the Justice Department. Senate Majority Leader Thune sees a "good chance" for bipartisan agreement before the summer recess begins in early August.
But the math is unforgiving. The bill needs 60 votes to overcome a filibuster, and Republicans hold only 53 seats. Democratic Senator Alsobrooks has already called the Justice Department's sole enforcement role "not serious" and said she won't support the legislation in its current form. Prediction markets reflect the uncertainty: Polymarket puts the odds of passage in 2026 at roughly 48%, while Kalshi’s estimate has slid to 50% from 74% a month ago. If the Senate fails to act before the August 10 recess, the regulatory framework could slip into the next legislative session.
Institutional Money Flows In, One Big Player Exits
While politicians haggle, the institutional machinery around Ripple is humming. Ripple Prime — born from the $1.25 billion acquisition of Hidden Road in October 2025 — now processes roughly $3 trillion in annual transaction volume. Revenue at the unit has tripled in a year, and in May 2026 it secured a $200 million credit facility, following an April BBB rating. Most of those transactions run through the RLUSD stablecoin rather than XRP directly. Ripple Prime is nominated in four categories for the Hedgeweek US Awards 2026, with the ceremony set for October in New York.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying XRP?
Spot XRP ETFs have drawn cumulative inflows of $1.49 billion through July 20, with $2.49 million arriving on that day alone. Yet one early institutional backer has quietly exited. Goldman Sachs fully liquidated its $153.8 million position in XRP ETFs — across products from Bitwise, Grayscale, Franklin Templeton, and 21Shares — during the first quarter of 2026, according to SEC filings from May. The selling pressure has so far been absorbed by steady weekly net inflows, but the departure of a Wall Street heavyweight is a notable shift.
Exchange supply is tightening. XRP reserves on Binance have fallen to 2.61 billion tokens, a six-month low — a pattern that often signals holders are moving assets to long-term custody or institutional storage.
RLUSD Gains Traction, On-Chain Activity Fades
The stablecoin RLUSD is becoming a meaningful piece of the XRP Ledger ecosystem. Its on-chain trading volume on the ledger has surged 40-fold in six months, and the share of total RLUSD supply sitting on XRP Ledger has jumped from 17% in April to 52% in July — now exceeding the portion on Ethereum. Since launch, over $2.5 billion has traded across RLUSD pairs, with the RLUSD/XRP pair alone generating roughly $900 million in volume.
The network itself crossed 8 million activated accounts this week. A protocol upgrade, fixCleanup3_2_0, is scheduled for July 29 and has already secured 85.71% validator approval, aiming to fix rounding and precision errors in the ledger's credit protocol.
But the headline metrics hide a quieter reality. On July 20, active accounts on the network fell to roughly 7,630 — the lowest level of the year. Institutional interest via ETFs is strong, but retail on-chain activity is flagging as the market waits for Washington.
XRP at a turning point? This analysis reveals what investors need to know now.
Chartists Split on Direction
Technical analysts are offering sharply divergent views. The "dead cross" between the 20-week and 50-week moving averages, in place since January, won't be invalidated until XRP reclaims the $1.60 level, according to analyst ChartNerd. A failure at key support could send the token below $1.00.
On the bullish side, analyst Diana (@InvestWithD) sees the current symmetrical triangle pattern targeting $1.20 to $1.30 if the RSI continues to recover. EGRAG CRYPTO is looking further out, projecting a $1 trillion market capitalization for XRP on a longer horizon.
Sentiment data from Santiment adds a contrarian twist: weighted XRP sentiment has fallen to its lowest since October 2025. Crowd fatigue often precedes a reversal, though it offers little comfort to traders watching a token that sits 69% below its all-time high and is waiting on a Senate vote that could — or could not — change everything.
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