XRP’s Network Builds New Infrastructure as Token Price Hovers Near 2026 Low

XRP trades near $1.10, down 70% from peak, while XRPL advances atomic transactions, institutional lending, and RLUSD stablecoin hits $1.7B market cap.

XRP is living a split identity. While the token itself trades just a few cents above its yearly trough, the underlying network is clocking some of its most ambitious technical milestones in years. The gap between market sentiment and protocol development has rarely been wider.

On the price front, XRP changed hands at roughly $1.10 on July 2, up 4.45% on the day and 5.46% for the week — but still down 9% over the past month and a staggering 70% below its 52-week peak of $3.65. The token hit a fresh annual low of $1.01 on June 26, and despite a modest recovery, it remains 27% under its 200-day moving average of $1.49. The relative strength index sits at 43.4, a neutral reading that offers little directional clarity.

Yet beneath the surface, the XRP Ledger ecosystem is humming with upgrades. Core developer Denis Angell confirmed on July 2 that the batch amendment, which enables atomic multi-operation transactions in a single ledger entry, has returned to the core repository after a successful security audit and now awaits validator approval. Separately, a developer team submitted “AMM Swappable Curves” to the XRPL Standards process, a proposal that would allow liquidity pools to deploy concentrated liquidity and StableSwap curves alongside the standard constant-product model.

The most consequential governance votes involve two amendments aiming to turn the network into a native institutional lending layer. XLS-65 (Single Asset Vaults) had drawn 22.86% validator support by July 3, while XLS-66 (Lending Protocol) stood at 20%. Both require 80% approval over a two-week window to activate on mainnet. If passed, they would let regulated financial institutions issue uncollateralized loans with off-chain credit checks, settled via on-chain term loans.

Stablecoin growth is providing another bright spot. Ripple-backed RLUSD now boasts roughly $1.7 billion in global market capitalization, and as of July 2, 51–52% of that supply — over $800 million — resides on the XRP Ledger. The network’s total stablecoin market cap is approaching $1 billion, currently at about $907 million. That surge coincides with a jump in on-chain activity: daily active XRP addresses rose 72% in late June to around 39,500, and single-day wallet creation hit a three-month high of 4,941 on July 2, following a wave of liquidations in the futures market.

Institutional demand remains resilient despite the price weakness. XRP spot ETFs recorded cumulative net inflows of roughly $1.48 billion since November 2025, with assets under management across the seven funds at about $1.4 billion and over 800 million tokens locked in those products. On July 2 alone, net inflows reached $6.54 million, all driven by the Bitwise XRP ETF.

Ripple is also expanding its geographic reach. A new partnership with South Korea’s KBank will leverage Ripple’s network for cross-border payments, initially testing on-chain transfers with partners in Thailand and the United Arab Emirates. The bank is expected to later migrate to Ripple’s SaaS wallet solution Palisade. Meanwhile, Ripple Prime — the institutional prime brokerage born from the $1.25 billion acquisition of Hidden Road in 2025 — now processes roughly $3 trillion annually in derivatives and digital assets, with RLUSD serving as collateral and post-trade settlement gradually moving to the XRP Ledger.

The regulatory picture remains a wild card. The CLARITY Act, which would provide legal clarity for digital assets, faces a tight window before the Senate’s August recess. Galaxy Digital recently lowered its probability of passage this year from 75% to 60%, citing delays in the Senate Banking Committee.

On-chain data from Santiment adds another layer of caution: the 30-day MVRV ratio — comparing market value to realized value — sits at negative 45%, and the 365-day figure is even deeper at negative 47%. Both represent a 12-year low for XRP returns. Historically, such extremes have preceded either a relief rally or the final capitulation. For now, the near-term resistance at $1.14 will test whether the post-June-26 bounce has legs.