XRP’s Institutional Inflows and Network Revival Test $1 Support Amid CLARITY Act Limbo

The gap between what XRP’s underlying network is doing and where its price sits has rarely been wider. While the token clings to $1.09 — up 3.25% on the day and 4.24% for the week — institutional demand via exchange-traded products is telling a very different story from the retail anxiety reflected in the charts.

XRP spot ETFs recorded net inflows of $22.99 million last week, marking the eighth consecutive week of positive flows. Bitwise led the charge with $11.18 million on June 26 alone. The seven active XRP funds now collectively manage nearly $1 billion in assets, and they have not posted a single day of outflows in that period. That resilience stands in stark contrast to the broader crypto ETF market, where Bitcoin funds bled $444.5 million in a single day when BTC slumped below $60,000.

The institutional buying is backed by on-chain signals that suggest patient accumulation. Nearly 5,000 new wallets were created on the XRP Ledger in a single day at the end of June — the strongest burst of new addresses in three months. Whales are also building positions, and trading volume in Ripple’s native stablecoin RLUSD has climbed above $2.5 billion. Online sentiment has shifted decisively positive: bullish comments now outnumber bearish ones by a ratio of roughly 3.7 to 1, the highest reading in a quarter.

Yet the price remains glued to a narrow band near critical support. The 52-week low of $1.01, touched on June 26, is just 7% below current levels. A dense buy zone between $1.00 and $1.06 has so far stemmed further declines, but a daily close below $1.00 could open the path toward $0.80. On the upside, resistance at $1.18 to $1.20 caps any immediate rally. The relative strength index of 42.9 sits in neutral territory, while the price languishes roughly 27% below the 200-day moving average of $1.49 — a stark reminder of the broader downtrend’s strength.

Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying XRP?

The most immediate catalyst for a shift in either direction remains political. The CLARITY Act, which would classify XRP as a commodity rather than a security, missed its original target date of July 4. The Senate entered its summer recess on June 29 and will not return until July 13, with leadership planning to prioritize a defense bill in the first week back. That pushes any vote on the act to late July or early August at the earliest. The bill needs 60 votes in the Senate, meaning roughly seven Democrats must cross the aisle, and negotiations stalled last week over an ethics clause related to President Trump’s personal crypto holdings.

The market has already demonstrated how sensitive it is to legislative progress. On May 14, a committee vote advancing the bill triggered a 4.5% spike in XRP to $1.49. A full passage could produce a significantly larger move. Until then, traders are left watching the macro backdrop — particularly Bitcoin’s price trajectory and the Federal Reserve’s next move — and the technical standoff between $1.00 support and $1.20 resistance.

That same short-term squeeze that helped push XRP off its June lows was amplified by a $281 million short-squeeze event, fueled by dovish Fed commentary. But the longer-term outlook has turned more cautious on Wall Street. Standard Chartered slashed its year-end 2026 price target for XRP from $8.00 to $2.80 following the February sell-off, while maintaining its 2030 target at $28.00. The bank noted that ETF inflows, after a strong initial burst of $1.3 billion, have largely stalled — a dynamic now contradicted by the recent eight-week inflow streak that suggests institutional interest may be rekindling even as the price hesitates.