XRP Flirts with $1 as Political Stalemate Undermines Japan’s RLUSD Approval and JPMorgan’s XRPL Test

XRP plunges 42% to a 52-week low near $1.00 amid market sell-off, but Japan’s RLUSD greenlight and institutional pilots offer a counterbalance to stalled US legislation.

XRP is testing the psychological floor near $1.00, trading at roughly $1.03 to $1.07 as a brutal first half of 2026 wipes out more than 40% of its value. The token has shed 42% to 45% since the start of the year, hit a fresh 52-week low, and now sits almost 30% below its 200-day moving average. Two powerful forces are tugging in opposite directions: a flurry of institutional and geographic advances versus a stalled US regulatory bill and a risk-off storm sweeping the entire crypto market.

Japan gives RLUSD the green light, Mastercard plugs in

Ripple’s dollar-pegged stablecoin RLUSD has crossed a major regulatory frontier. Japan’s Financial Services Agency (JFSA) classified it as a Category 4 electronic payment instrument, allowing SBI VC Trade to offer the token to both retail and institutional clients in the country. The stablecoin is fully backed by US Treasuries and dollar deposits, with monthly attestations, and is initially settling on Ethereum with a per-order cap of roughly $6,200.

But the Japan milestone is only part of a broader infrastructure push. RLUSD is now embedded in Mastercard’s settlement system, which streamlines large-scale payments for corporate clients, and it communicates with 40 blockchains via the Wormhole protocol. The stablecoin’s market capitalisation has already reached $1.7 billion.

Political paralysis hits the CLARITY Act

While Ripple builds out stablecoin rails, the regulatory clarity that investors have been awaiting in the US remains on ice. President Trump has refused to sign the federal housing bill, demanding that Congress first pass the SAVE America Act. That linkage has stalled the CLARITY Act, a piece of legislation that would classify XRP as a digital commodity once and for all.

The bill had momentum: the Senate Banking Committee voted 15-9 in favour, and it still sits on the official Senate calendar. Decentralised prediction markets put the odds of eventual passage at about 62%. The next concrete date on the calendar is a hearing on 17 July, but until the housing bill logjam is broken, the timeline for the CLARITY Act remains uncertain.

Institutional pilots and whale accumulation offer a counterweight

Despite the political headwind, the XRP Ledger is attracting heavy hitters. Ripple, JPMorgan, Mastercard and Ondo Finance jointly executed a tokenised US Treasury fund redemption on the XRPL in under five seconds — a process that typically takes three to five business days across traditional cross-border settlement systems. The pilot demonstrates that the network can meet institutional clearing standards.

Meanwhile, long-term holders are doubling down. The number of wallets holding at least 10,000 XRP hit a record 332,230. Spot ETFs on XRP, which became tradeable in November 2025, have drawn net inflows of $1.44 billion, and both UBS and Bank of America disclosed positions in the products during the second quarter of 2026.

Market-wide liquidation drags XRP lower

None of that has insulated XRP from the broader downturn. This week alone, over $717 million in crypto positions were liquidated across exchanges, with Bitcoin sliding below $60,000. XRP lost roughly 13% in the last seven days, pushing the relative strength index to around 30-33 — deep oversold territory.

Chart technicians are watching the $1.00 level as the last major structural support. A break below that would leave the token without a technical anchor until the 17 July hearing provides fresh legislative cues. On the upside, a formidable resistance wall sits at $1.19, blocking any rapid recovery. For now, XRP remains caught between a promising technological and regional expansion on one side and a frustrating political logjam on the other.