XRP Ledger Activity and Institutional Build-Out Accelerate as Senate Clears CLARITY Act

XRP active wallets hit 48,453; CLARITY Act advances in Senate. ETF inflows total $1.37B; institutional adoption on hold. XRP trades at $1.48, down 20.89% YTD.

The XRP ecosystem is firing on more than one cylinder. On-chain data reveals a surge in network usage even as the token’s price cools from a legislative-driven spike, while a growing stack of institutional infrastructure points to a maturing market waiting for legal certainty.

Active wallets on the XRP Ledger climbed to 48,453 — the highest count since the end of March — with 3,317 new wallets joining the network. The volume of activity also pushed the burn rate of transaction fees up by 36.14 percent to 565 units. That spike in usage came with some friction: failed transactions of the tecNO_PERMISSION type hit 1,332, a sign the ledger felt the strain of higher volatility.

The catalyst for the initial price jump was clear. The US Senate Banking Committee voted 15-9 on May 14 to advance the CLARITY Act, a bill that would formally classify XRP as a digital commodity under federal law. Several Democrats crossed the aisle in the final moments, giving the measure bipartisan support. The legislation aims to replace the patchwork of SEC and CFTC interpretations with binding statutory rules — a step that some analysts have compared in significance to the Securities Act of 1933 for traditional markets.

XRP reacted immediately, climbing to an intraday high of $1.55 before settling back. On Friday it traded at $1.48, a 4.14 percent gain on the day. Yet the longer-term picture remains under water: the token is down 20.89 percent year-to-date and has lost 41.85 percent over the past twelve months.

The regulatory progress fits into a broader institutional build-out. Spot XRP ETFs, which launched in November 2025, have collected approximately $1.37 billion in inflows through mid-May. So far the bulk of that money has come from retail investors. Pension funds and regulated asset managers are largely sitting on the sidelines until the federal legal status is locked in, according to market participants.

Ripple’s infrastructure expansion meanwhile continues on two fronts. The US dollar-backed stablecoin RLUSD has reached a market capitalization of nearly $1.6 billion, while tokenized real-world assets on the XRP Ledger have surpassed the $3 billion mark. In a separate development, AIX Alpha launched a free quantitative trading and analysis platform on May 15, and Aviva Investors together with SG-FORGE are bringing tokenized products to the ledger.

The next legislative hurdle arrives quickly. The CLARITY Act now goes to the full Senate, where it needs 60 votes to proceed. A vote must take place before the chamber’s recess on May 21. If it passes, Standard Chartered projects ETF inflows could reach $4 billion to $8 billion by year-end.

On the charts, XRP is testing a critical zone. The token sits above its 50-day moving average of $1.39 but remains below the 200-day line, keeping the longer-term trend fragile. If it holds around $1.48, the $1.55 high comes back into play. A break lower puts support at $1.4150, a level that will test whether the legislative momentum can translate into sustained investor appetite.