XRP's Washington Clock Ticks Louder as Whales Hoard and Ripple Expands Abroad
Published on 07/25/2026 at 07:42 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
The political machinery in Washington is grinding slowly, and XRP is feeling every hesitation. The token traded at $1.09 on Friday, down 4.72 percent on the day, as a key piece of legislation that could cement its regulatory status faces mounting headwinds. Galaxy Research slashed the probability of the CLARITY Act passing in 2026 from 50 to 30 percent, citing a Senate calendar that is running out of runway before the August recess.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune has indicated a final vote before the break is unlikely. A 616-page draft bill is on the table, but seven Democratic senators argue it falls short, particularly on ethics provisions tied to crypto income. Ripple’s chief legal officer Stuart Alderoty has been pushing the bill as a consumer protection measure, yet bipartisan consensus remains elusive. For XRP, which already secured a commodities classification from the SEC and CFTC in March through joint agency guidance, the stakes are high: that guidance could be reversed by a future administration, while a law would lock the classification into federal statute.
Whales Are Pulling Tokens Off Exchanges at Record Rates
While the legislative drama unfolds, on-chain data tells a different story. According to CryptoQuant, on July 22, large investors accounted for 77.8 percent of all XRP withdrawals from centralized exchanges — up from 63 percent in early May. Retail investors' share of outflows fell from 36 to 22 percent over the same period, widening the gap between the two groups to nearly 56 percentage points.
The trend is not isolated to a single platform. On Binance, whales represented 71 percent of XRP withdrawals on July 22, compared with 67 percent in early May, while retail's slice slipped from 32 to 28.7 percent. The broader pattern across the exchange market suggests a coordinated accumulation phase rather than platform-specific behavior. XRP briefly touched $1.16 earlier in the week as whale balances rose and exchange inflows dropped, but the token has since surrendered those gains.
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ETF Flows Tell a More Cautious Story
Institutional fund demand presents a more uneven picture. US spot ETFs on XRP have pulled in roughly $12 million so far in July, heading for a fourth consecutive month of net inflows. Yet the pace has slowed markedly: April saw $81.59 million, May $131.94 million, and June $59.46 million, bringing the four-month total to about $285 million. July's figure is the weakest since tracking began, leaving analysts wary of reading too much into any single signal.
The recovery above $1.16 coincided with declining whale deposits and steady ETF inflows, but it followed weeks of consolidation around the $1 mark, where weak spot demand repeatedly snuffed out recovery attempts. The current price of $1.09 sits just below the 50-day moving average of $1.11 and a full 22 percent below the 200-day average of $1.40 — a reminder that the medium-term downtrend remains intact, even as the token trades only about 8 percent above its 52-week low of $1.01.
Ripple Builds Stablecoin Infrastructure Despite Political Fog
Away from the price action, Ripple has been quietly expanding its institutional footprint. The company launched Ripple Mint, a platform allowing institutional clients to mint, redeem, and manage the RLUSD dollar-pegged stablecoin via a web console and API, complete with real-time tracking and webhook notifications. RLUSD, issued by Standard Custody & Trust under New York's NYDFS oversight, is expanding to more than 40 networks via Wormhole bridge technology, including the XRPL EVM sidechain, Base, Optimism, Ink, and Unichain. The stablecoin's circulating supply stands at roughly $1.51 billion against reserves of $1.62 billion.
Ripple also made a strategic investment in compliance provider Notabene, integrating RLUSD into its Notabene Flow payment network, which connects more than 2,300 institutions across over 100 countries and processes an annual transaction volume exceeding $2 trillion. Ripple executive Jack McDonald described the partnership as a way to close the trust gap that still hinders broader institutional adoption.
Yet the numbers on RLUSD are mixed. Monthly transfer volume dropped by a quarter from $14.6 billion to roughly $11 billion, even as the number of holders rose 6 percent and active addresses jumped 70 percent — a picture of a growing user base but declining trading activity.
Europe Opens Doors as Analyst Views Diverge
On the regulatory front, Ripple secured a full license as a crypto-asset service provider under the EU's MiCA framework from Luxembourg's CSSF, granting passporting rights across 30 countries in the European Economic Area. The European Securities and Markets Authority cautioned against a "halo effect," noting that a license does not protect investors from price losses and that operational oversight remains with national authorities.
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Whether any of this infrastructure build-out directly boosts XRP's price remains contested. One analyst noted that Ripple is initially rolling out RLUSD on other chains like Solana and Base, and XRP only benefits if volume actually flows to the XRP Ledger. A price target of $6 would require a 466 percent rally — demand for XRP itself, the analyst argued, has yet to be proven.
On the fund flow side, FXStreet reports that roughly $8 million entered XRP-focused funds this week alone. Meanwhile, healthcare firm Wellgistics Health filed an S-1 with the SEC proposing XRP as a treasury reserve asset and loan collateral, backed by a $50 million credit line from LDA Capital. On the derivatives market, large holders are split: some addresses are accumulating, while others have shifted larger positions onto exchanges in recent months.
For the near term, the Senate debate over the CLARITY Act will likely determine whether XRP can break out of its recent trading range or remain stuck in the $1.01 to $1.16 corridor. The whales are betting on clarity — but Washington is not yet delivering it.
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