XRP’s May Crossroads: Goldman’s $154M Exit Versus Fed’s Open Door — and a Senate Vote That Could Break the Bollinger Squeeze

The Fed opens door for Ripple's RLUSD via Fedwire, Goldman Sachs dumps $154M XRP ETF stake, yet ETF inflows persist and XRP price stagnates near $1.37.

The Federal Reserve this week proposed granting crypto-native companies direct access to its payment and settlement infrastructure, a move that could let Ripple plug its stablecoin and ledger into the plumbing of the US central bank. The public comment period opened on May 21, and Ripple has already submitted an application. If approved, the firm would gain a dedicated account at the Fed with a deposit limit of $1 billion — a strategic foothold that would allow RLUSD, Ripple’s own dollar-pegged token, to clear transactions via Fedwire.

Yet at the same time, one of Wall Street’s most storied institutions has completely reversed course on XRP. Goldman Sachs liquidated all its XRP ETF positions during the first quarter of 2026, exiting holdings worth roughly $154 million at the end of last year. That stake had represented nearly three-quarters of the total institutional exposure held by major fund managers at the time. The abrupt divestment stands in stark contrast to the retail and institutional inflows still pouring into the sector.

ETF Inflows Persist Despite the Whale Exit

The broader XRP ETF market has shrugged off Goldman’s departure. On May 20 alone, US spot XRP ETFs recorded net inflows of $1.48 million, double the previous day’s figure. Franklin Templeton and Canary Capital have been the primary drivers; Canary’s fund alone has accumulated $445 million since launch. Total net inflows since the November 2025 debut of the XRP ETF cohort now stand at $1.39 billion, with assets under management hovering just above $1 billion.

Standard Chartered analysts expect further billions to follow if the CLARITY Act passes the Senate. But the immediate price action suggests none of this momentum has reached the spot market.

Price Squeeze Tightens

XRP is changing hands at roughly $1.37, barely budging from the $1.36 level cited in the primary article. The daily chart shows an extreme Bollinger Band compression between $1.36 and $1.37 — a pattern that typically precedes a sharp move. Further technical resistance sits at the 200-day moving average of $1.70, and on-chain data from Glassnode pinpoints a heavy supply zone near $1.46, where a large number of holders are sitting on unrealised losses. Support has held around $1.30.

A derivatives trader on Deribit has placed a “short strangle” on XRP, collecting roughly $224,500 in premium. The position is a bet that the token will stay close to $1.40 through the end of June — effectively wagering on more stagnation.

Ripple’s Infrastructure Push Continues

While the price idles, the network is quietly embedding itself deeper into institutional finance. On May 6, JPMorgan, Mastercard, Ripple and Ondo Finance completed a live settlement of tokenised US Treasuries on the XRP Ledger. The entire on-chain leg took about 4.2 seconds, after which the fiat side was routed through JPMorgan’s Kinexys platform to a DBS bank account in Singapore — executed outside normal banking hours.

This marks the first time a public blockchain served as the transport layer for returning a tokenised real-world asset to institutional cash rails. Previous pilots had relied on permissioned or proprietary networks. The structural distinction goes beyond publicity: it demonstrates that XRP Ledger can coordinate between disparate institutional systems.

The Senate Vote That Could Unlock the Gridlock

Both primary and secondary sources converge on a single catalyst: the CLARITY Act. The US Senate is expected to vote on the bill in June, and analysts at Bitwise have set a price target of $4.94 for XRP this year — contingent on passage before the August recess.

Until that vote lands, the token remains trapped between competing forces. Goldman’s exit subtracts a high-profile name from the institutional roster, but the Fed’s overture to crypto firms adds an entirely new vector. Whether the Bollinger squeeze resolves to the upside or the downside will likely depend on whether the Senate delivers the regulatory clarity that markets have been waiting for.