TLDR
- XRP dropped 7.3% on Tuesday, falling below the $1.30 level
- Dubai-based investor Royal Kane rejected XRP due to its $81.68B market cap
- The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 25 basis points on Sep. 16
- The CLARITY Act failed a Senate cloture vote 50-49 on Sep. 15
- XRP futures open interest dropped from $1.128B to $871.22M in under a month
XRP has slipped below $1.30 after a 7.3% drop on Tuesday, pulling the token down roughly 23% from its recent high near $1.68. Trading volume over the past 24 hours stood at $4.12 billion, with the market cap sitting at approximately $81.68 billion.
The decline follows a strong August, when XRP climbed from around $1 to a monthly high near $1.70, posting a 28.5% gain. U.S. spot XRP ETFs drew in $153.55 million during August, including $150.28 million in the final two weeks alone.
Crypto analyst Cryptollica posted on X that XRP has just printed its lowest two-week RSI reading in its entire 13-year history — lower than 2018, lower than the 2020 COVID crash, and lower than the 2022 bear market. Despite this, Cryptollica noted that price is still holding above the long-term rising structure that has supported XRP through multiple market cycles, writing: “Everyone wants XRP after the breakout. Almost nobody wants it when RSI is printing a 13 year low.”
YOU WILL BE CHASING XRP FROM BEHIND$XRP has just printed the lowest two week RSI reading in its entire 13 year history.
Lower than 2018.
Lower than the 2020 covid collapse.
Lower than the 2022 bear market.Yet price is still holding above the long term rising structure… pic.twitter.com/eL9KVAlY0L
— Cryptollica (@Cryptollica) September 17, 2026
Royal Kane, a Dubai-based crypto investor, publicly stated on X that he would not invest in XRP at its current valuation. His argument: at $81.68 billion, the market cap is already too large to offer the kind of returns available from smaller assets with stronger narratives. He pointed to Solana, Pepe, and Zcash as examples of assets with compelling stories that drove earlier gains.
Kane also claimed Ripple has “no products or revenue.” Ripple, which is privately held, does operate several businesses including Ripple Payments, the RLUSD stablecoin, and Ripple Prime, its institutional brokerage formed after acquiring Hidden Road.
Fed Rate Hike Hits Risk Assets
On Sep. 16, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points, pushing the target range to 3.75%–4%. It was the first U.S. rate increase since 2023. Twelve of 18 Fed officials projected further hikes. Higher rates make U.S. government bonds more attractive compared to speculative assets like crypto.
U.S. inflation hit 3.4% annually in August, with gasoline prices up 3.9%. Prediction markets had priced in an 81% chance of the hike before it happened.
CLARITY Act Stalls in Senate
On Sep. 15, the Senate voted 50-49 against advancing the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act, falling 11 votes short of the 60 needed. The bill would have split crypto oversight between the SEC and CFTC, and could have clarified XRP’s classification.
🇺🇸 CLARITY ACT IS NOT DEAD YET.
7 Senate Democrats say they're committed to getting the bill passed. pic.twitter.com/kGMBwtJXKY
— Ash Crypto (@AshCrypto) September 17, 2026
XRP still holds its 2023 legal win from Judge Analisa Torres, who ruled that programmatic XRP sales on public exchanges were not securities transactions. Seven Senate Democrats have since reopened CLARITY Act talks, saying the failed vote was “not the end.”
On the derivatives side, XRP open interest fell from $1.128B to $871.22M. Franklin Templeton’s XRPZ ETF pulled in $3.5 million on Sep. 16, extending a ten-day inflow streak even as Bitcoin ETFs saw $295 million in outflows the same day.
