XRP Falls 5% as ETF Inflows Collapse 93% to $1 Million

XRP fell roughly 5% last week to $1.03, diverging from a broader crypto rally that lifted bitcoin, ether, and Solana between 1% and 4%. Total crypto market value rose 1.4% to $2.19 trillion. The move stands out because XRP exchange-traded funds recorded a fourth consecutive week of net inflows, even as the pace of that buying nearly disappeared. Regulatory delays and thinning institutional demand explain most of the gap.

Institutional Buying Slows to a Crawl

XRP ETF inflows fell roughly 93% week-over-week to about $1 million for the week ending August 8, down from $14.86 million the prior week, according to SoSoValue data. Total XRP ETF net assets dropped to about $964 million from $988 million, making XRP the weakest performer among major crypto ETF categories that week. Bitcoin funds, by comparison, took in $754 million after a prior outflow, while ether funds added roughly $195 million — nearly seven times the previous week’s total.

Cumulative XRP ETF inflows since the funds launched in November 2025 stand near $1.5 billion, far short of the $4 billion to $8 billion some banks projected for the first year. Standard Chartered cut its 2026 XRP price target from $8 to $2.80 as that anticipated wave of institutional buying failed to appear. Grayscale’s XRP Trust added to the selling pressure, reporting roughly 103 million XRP, worth about $181 million, in net outflows during a recent quarter.

Regulatory Delay Weighs on Sentiment

The Senate set aside the CLARITY Act on July 27 to handle other legislative business before recess, delaying the bill that would classify XRP as a commodity under federal law. A vote is not expected before lawmakers return in the fall, with mid-September the earliest realistic date. Until that clarity arrives, large institutional buyers have limited incentive to expand XRP positions.

Market data point to accumulation rather than exit. Order flow has stayed elevated even as trading volume turns neutral, and wallets holding 100 million to 1 billion XRP increased their share of total supply from 10.6% to nearly 12% in recent weeks. Other developments have offered some support:

• The XRP Ledger’s v3.3.0 upgrade, aimed at institutional finance and tokenization use cases, went live in early August
• Tokenized real-world assets on the XRP Ledger grew from $73 million in January 2025 to $4.3 billion by August 2026, a nearly 60-fold increase

Conclusion

XRP’s decline traces to a specific and identifiable cause rather than broad market weakness: institutional capital has stalled while lawmakers delay the regulatory clarity investors are waiting on. Bitcoin and ether funds are absorbing fresh money in the same window, underscoring how directly XRP’s fortunes are tied to the CLARITY Act’s progress. The token’s next meaningful catalyst arrives only when the Senate returns to the bill this fall.