XRP's Conflicting Currents: Whale Accumulation Meets Goldman's Exit

XRP trades near $1.10 as whales add 600M tokens in 5 weeks, while Goldman Sachs fully exits its XRP ETF position and retail sells.

XRP is navigating a period of starkly contradictory signals, with the token trading at roughly $1.10 after a 3.58% decline on July 24, 2026. The broader crypto market remains under pressure from escalating geopolitical tensions — US airstrikes in the Iran conflict have now entered their 13th night — coupled with fresh American tariffs targeting more than 60 countries. The sell-off triggered roughly $250 million in liquidations across the digital asset space, with $188 million of that concentrated in long positions.

Yet beneath the surface-level anxiety, a more nuanced picture is emerging. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index has dropped to 37, firmly in "fear" territory. But large holders are behaving differently. Whales holding between 100,000 and 100 million XRP have now been accumulating for five consecutive weeks, adding approximately 600 million tokens worth around $700 million — a 2.8% increase in their collective position. Their total holdings now stand at roughly 22.35 billion XRP. This buying pressure has coincided with XRP reserves on Binance hitting a five-month low, suggesting that tokens are moving off exchanges into longer-term storage. Retail investors, by contrast, have been net sellers during this period, according to data from WalletInvestor.com.

The token currently sits just 8.7% above its 52-week low of $1.01, a level touched on June 26, 2026. That proximity underscores the market's nervous disposition, though analyst Ali Martinez has characterized the current environment as a potential entry point for long-term investors rather than a classic correction. Oliver Michel, managing director of Tokentus Investment, had previously floated the possibility of XRP slipping below the $1 threshold entirely.

Goldman's Complete Exit Raises Eyebrows

The institutional narrative around XRP has taken a sharp turn. Goldman Sachs, which had built a $153.8 million position across four spot XRP ETFs by the end of 2025, has now exited completely. The bank's 13F filing for the first quarter of 2026, submitted in mid-May, showed zero XRP ETF holdings as of March 31 — a full liquidation rather than a gradual reduction.

However, context matters. During the same quarter, Goldman also slashed its Ethereum ETF position by roughly 70% and trimmed Bitcoin ETF holdings. The bank redirected capital into crypto equities instead, increasing stakes in firms like Circle, Galaxy Digital, and Coinbase by as much as 249%. Bloomberg analysts had previously categorized Goldman's fourth-quarter XRP buildup as trading-desk activity rather than a conviction hold, and the exit appears to confirm that assessment.

Despite this high-profile departure, broader ETF demand for XRP has remained resilient. Net weekly inflows reached $60.5 million, pushing cumulative inflows to $1.39 billion — the strongest weekly showing since January. The market appears to have absorbed the Goldman news without significant disruption.

RLUSD Migration: Structural Shift or Treasury Maneuver?

Ripple's dollar-pegged stablecoin RLUSD has quietly undergone a significant migration. On June 26, the amount of RLUSD held on the XRP Ledger surpassed that on Ethereum for the first time, and the gap has been widening daily. As of July 11, the XRP Ledger held 863.2 million RLUSD compared to Ethereum's 676.1 million — a 56-to-44 split of the total $1.539 billion supply.

Activity on the XRP Ledger side has grown 11.7% since mid-June, while Ethereum's RLUSD volume has collapsed by 22.8%. Over a two-month horizon, the XRP Ledger's RLUSD volume has more than doubled. But analysts caution against reading this as pure organic demand. Ripple burned roughly $539 million worth of RLUSD across both chains over the past month, with about three-quarters of those burns occurring on Ethereum. The total RLUSD supply has shrunk by roughly 11% from its June high of nearly $1.8 billion.

The XRP Ledger's growing share is therefore partly a function of Ripple shrinking the Ethereum side rather than new capital flooding in. On the XRP Ledger, XRP serves as a bridge currency for RLUSD trading pairs — a function it never had on Ethereum — which could theoretically drive genuine XRP demand if sustained external trading volume materializes. So far, that evidence remains thin.

Washington's Clock Is Ticking

The single biggest overhang for XRP remains the CLARITY Act, the US crypto regulatory framework that has hit a new ethics hurdle in the Senate. Senator Cynthia Lummis has described the ethics provisions as the largest obstacle to passage, accusing Democrats of demanding "a pound of flesh" from President Trump. Several Democratic senators — including Alsobrooks, Booker, Cortez Masto, and Gallego — oppose the current draft, arguing it lacks sufficient enforcement mechanisms for federal prosecutors.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has urged Congress to pass the legislation despite its imperfections, warning that "perfection must not be the enemy of the good." Ripple's chief legal officer Stuart Alderoty has framed the bill as a consumer protection law with anti-money laundering provisions. The probability of passage in 2026 now sits below 40%, with 60 Senate votes required for approval. A decision is expected before the August summer recess.

Analyst Vincent Van Code sees the CLARITY Act as potentially accelerating institutional XRP adoption but expects no direct price impact unless federal legislation clarifies the legal standing of the 2023 SEC v. Ripple ruling.

Ripple's Broader Build-Out

Beyond the political drama, Ripple continues expanding its ecosystem. The company has made a strategic investment in Notabene, a compliance firm specializing in Travel Rule infrastructure, to deepen RLUSD's integration into corporate payment networks. Financial terms were not disclosed.

On the technology front, RippleX has announced a milestone: over one million AI-powered "agentic" transactions have now been processed on the XRP Ledger. Chief engineer Ayo Akinyele projects that figure will reach ten million in the near term and eventually 100 million. These developments, while fundamental in nature, have yet to translate into price momentum, which remains hostage to the geopolitical climate and the Senate's decision on the CLARITY Act.