Court Clears $130M Ripple Stake Sale as XRP Rides ETF Inflows and Protocol Upgrade Hopes

XRP gains 3% as court approves $130M Ripple share sale to Galaxy Digital, Arrington Capital; XRP ETFs top $1B AUM; CLARITY Act clears ethics hurdle. Technicals test 50-day MA.

XRP pushed past $1.13 on Tuesday, gaining just over 3% in 24 hours and roughly 6% on the week, as a rare combination of institutional deal-making, steady exchange-traded fund demand, and an impending network upgrade converged to lift the token off its recent lows.

A US bankruptcy court has authorised the sale of $130 million in private Ripple shares, part of the restructuring of pre-IPO platform Linqto. The buyer group underscores the depth of institutional appetite for Ripple equity. Galaxy Digital is taking $60 million, Arrington Capital $50 million, the Private Shares Fund $16 million, and GAM Alternatives Lux $4 million. Ripple itself waived its right of first refusal, clearing the way for broader distribution among institutional holders.

The court ruling arrives alongside fresh momentum in the XRP spot-ETF market. Bitwise reported net inflows of $2.49 million into its BWXRP product on 20 July, pushing total assets under management across all XRP ETFs past the $1 billion mark. Cumulative inflows since launch now stand at roughly $1.49 billion, although the pace has slowed from the $7 million seen the prior week.

Political Tailwind from Washington

Across the Atlantic, the regulatory picture for digital assets is sharpening. The White House reached an agreement on an ethics clause for the CLARITY Act on 21 July, removing a key obstacle to the bill’s progress, according to The Block. The text is expected to be released in the coming days, and the Senate must vote before its August recess. At least seven Democratic votes are needed to avoid a filibuster. If passed, the legislation would designate the CFTC as the primary regulator for crypto spot markets while leaving the SEC in charge of digital securities — a distinction that carries particular weight for XRP, given its long history of regulatory uncertainty.

Derivatives Market Neutral, Technical Levels Tested

Despite the positive news flow, the derivatives market remains in a wait-and-see mode. Open interest in XRP perpetual futures has risen to about 2.4 billion XRP from 2.13 billion earlier, suggesting traders are cautiously adding risk. A CryptoQuant analyst described the structure as neutral, with balanced long and short liquidations on Binance and funding rates hovering near zero. Support is pegged at $1.00 to $1.06; a break below that zone could open a path toward $0.80, analysts caution. Meanwhile, the 52-week low of $1.01, set in late June, is now 11.66% below the current price.

Chart technicians note that XRP is trading exactly at its 50-day moving average of $1.12, a level many treat as a short-term inflection point. The 200-day average sits at $1.42, roughly 20% higher — a reminder that the recovery remains in its early stages. A sustained move above $1.13, following a buy signal at $1.109 last week, could target $1.35.

Protocol Upgrade on the Horizon

Parallel to price action, the XRP Ledger is preparing for a significant technical evolution. Validator service Vet reports that voting on a package of six amendments could begin within the next two weeks. The bundle includes:

• Batch transactions for parallel processing of multiple transfers
• Confidential transfers to enhance transaction privacy
• Sponsored fees and reserves allowing third parties to fund accounts
• Permission delegation for streamlined rights management by institutions
• Dynamic MPT for more flexible multi-purpose tokens, plus bug fixes in the lending protocol

These upgrades are designed to reduce node storage requirements and stabilise network synchronisation — infrastructure improvements that could support long-term adoption.

Network Contradictions: Fewer Payments, More Tokenised Assets

Not all metrics paint a bullish picture. Daily payments on the XRP Ledger fell to roughly 325,888 on 18 July, the lowest in nine months, primarily due to a drop-off in real-world asset tokenisation activity. Yet the tokenised-asset segment itself is booming: volumes of real-world assets (RWAs) on the ledger surged 870% over 30 days, with $3.5 billion settled on a single day. Some observers caution, however, that the issuance of tokenised assets does not automatically translate into demand for the XRP token itself.

Despite the mixed signals, XRP remains the sixth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, at roughly $70 billion. Year to date, the token is still down nearly 40%, and it trades almost 70% below its 52-week high of $3.64 from July 2025. The current rally, while welcome, looks more like a stabilisation after a sharp sell-off than the start of a new euphoric phase.

Structurally, the foundation remains intact: Ripple’s full MiCA licence in Europe and the planned launch of its RLUSD stablecoin in Japan provide a long-term use-case narrative. Whether the Senate passes the CLARITY Act before the August recess and whether the validator vote kicks off as expected will determine whether XRP can build on its recent gains or remains stuck at its current crossroads.