XRP Whales Gobble Up 600 Million Tokens as Ripple's Stablecoin Push Collides With Washington Gridlock

XRP trades at $1.10 as whales accumulate 600M tokens, but regulatory uncertainty and retail selling keep prices near critical support at $1.08.

The divergence between XRP's on-chain activity and its price action has rarely been starker. While large holders have scooped up roughly 600 million tokens worth around $660 million in recent weeks, the digital asset itself continues to languish near critical support levels, trading at $1.10 on Saturday — down 0.79 percent on the day. The token sits just 1.43 percent above its 50-day moving average, a technical posture that signals indecision rather than conviction.

That support at $1.08 is now being watched closely by market participants. A break below that level could open the door to targets in the $1.03 to $1.06 range, while a hold would likely set the stage for a recovery toward $1.13 to $1.20. From its 52-week high of $3.55 set last July, XRP remains 69.07 percent off those peaks. The distance to the 52-week low of $1.01, recorded in June, is a mere 7.71 percent.

Regulatory Clock Ticks Louder Than Product News

The dominant overhang for XRP remains the CLARITY Act, the landmark US digital-asset market structure legislation. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has indicated that a vote before the summer recess is unlikely, though he reportedly still intends to force one. The math is unforgiving: Republicans hold 52 seats but need 60 votes to pass the bill, making Democratic support essential. A revised draft incorporating additional ethics rules for public officials was introduced on July 22 in an effort to bridge the gap, but it has instead sparked fresh partisan friction.

The timeline is tightening. A White House crypto adviser still considers the first week of August a realistic window, but analysts at Galaxy Research have slashed their probability estimate for passage this year to roughly 30 percent. Senator Cynthia Lummis has merged proposals from both the Banking and Agriculture committees into the latest text, yet sticking points remain — particularly around whether stablecoins should be allowed to pay interest. The American Bankers Association has warned that such a move could trigger deposit outflows from traditional banks, while Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon has publicly endorsed the legislation. Coinbase, meanwhile, has withdrawn its support for the current round of negotiations.

The political paralysis is showing up in the derivatives market. Open interest in XRP futures has edged lower at select exchanges, while the put-call ratio has tilted in favor of sellers. The Relative Strength Index sits at 46.9, squarely in neutral territory — confirming a consolidation phase without directional conviction.

Whales Accumulate as Retail Exits

The most striking dynamic in the XRP market is the behavioral split between large and small holders. Wallets holding between 1 million and 100 million XRP have added roughly 600 million tokens over the past several weeks, according to Arabian Post. At the same time, retail investors are increasingly selling into weakness. Exchange reserves on major platforms like Binance have fallen to multi-month lows, a pattern historically interpreted as reduced willingness to sell in the near term.

Analyst Ali Martinez sees a breakout above $1.13 as the necessary trigger for further gains toward $1.17 and $1.21. Fellow analyst Javon Marks has outlined a far more ambitious long-term target above $15, based on historical price patterns — though this remains a speculative thesis well beyond current trading ranges.

ETF flows tell a more cautious story. Weekly inflows into XRP exchange-traded products have averaged roughly $8 million, a tepid pace that suggests institutional appetite for direct XRP exposure is cooling even as Ripple pushes deeper into stablecoin territory.

Ripple Mint Goes Live, but the Market Shrugs

Ripple launched Ripple Mint on Thursday, a platform that allows institutional clients to mint, redeem, and manage the company's RLUSD stablecoin through either a web interface or an API. The stablecoin, issued by New York-based Standard Custody & Trust Company under a NYDFS charter, is redeemable 1:1 for US dollars. Ripple has simultaneously expanded RLUSD's availability to the XRPL EVM Sidechain as well as Base, Optimism, Ink, and Unichain.

The company also invested in Notabene, a compliance platform that connects more than 2,300 financial institutions across over 100 jurisdictions, processing an annual on-chain transaction volume exceeding $2 trillion.

Yet the product launch failed to move XRP's price. RLUSD's market capitalization stands at roughly $1.5 billion, but monthly transfer volume has declined by about 25 percent to just under $11 billion. On the positive side, Ripple reports that holder numbers have risen roughly 6 percent to over 60,000, with a notable increase in active addresses. The infrastructure buildout is clearly aimed at reversing the revenue trend and reigniting institutional usage.

On the technical front, the XRP Ledger recently crossed one million so-called "agentic transactions" — automated payments executed by AI agents. The application is still nascent, and its impact on actual network utilization remains to be seen.

Two Narratives, One Price

The disconnect between Ripple's operational progress and XRP's price performance is becoming a recurring theme in market commentary. The two are legally and economically distinct: Ripple holds significant XRP reserves but does not control the public ledger. Product announcements alone have not been enough to lift the token in recent sessions.

Broader macro headwinds are compounding the regulatory uncertainty. Inflation concerns in the US, geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, and rising oil prices are weighing on crypto assets broadly. XRP closed the week below its 50-day moving average of $1.11, now trailing it by 2.14 percent.

For XRP holders, the near-term path hinges on the legislative calendar. The next concrete catalyst is a potential Senate vote before the August 7 recess. Advocacy group Stand With Crypto is attempting to build pressure with roughly 950,000 constituent contacts to lawmakers. Former House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry has described passage as "a question of when, not if" — but for now, the "when" remains stubbornly uncertain, and the market is pricing in that ambiguity.