NEW YORK, May 16, 2026, 13:36 (EDT)
- XRP traded near $1.42, down about 2% over the past 24 hours. Bitcoin and ether slipped too.
- The Senate Banking Committee advanced the CLARITY Act, throwing some policy weight behind crypto. Risk-off trading limited gains.
- As the week kicks off, XRP traders are watching the $1.50 mark. U.S. crypto legislation stays in the spotlight.
XRP was down Saturday, hovering near $1.42 after getting a policy push from Washington this week and a pickup in fund flows, but the price didn’t break higher. It dropped 2.15% over the last 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap, with market cap around $87.6 billion. About $1.82 billion traded in the past day.
Crypto traders are watching Washington’s next steps on regulation as risk assets keep falling. The U.S. Senate Banking Committee advanced the CLARITY Act on May 14. The bill tries to clarify when digital tokens are securities and when they’re commodities.
XRP fell over the weekend, and top coins saw weakness too. Bitcoin was at roughly $78,266, down 1.46%. Ether dropped 2.25% to around $2,178. XRP and majors took the hit together.
XRP was mostly flat on the week. According to CoinGecko, the token dropped around 2% over the last day and gained just 0.1% across the week. The $1.50 mark was the level watched for much of the period.
XRP spot funds notched a big inflow this week. Five U.S.-listed funds brought in $25.8 million on Monday, the most since Jan. 5, according to CoinDesk. Spot ETFs buy and hold the asset and trade like stocks.
Crypto funds kept attracting inflows, CoinShares said. Digital asset investment products took in $857.9 million for the week ending May 8, with $706.1 million going into bitcoin. XRP had $39.6 million in inflows. Money also flowed to Solana and ether, according to CoinShares.
Markets paused. Sean Farrell, head of digital assets strategy at Fundstrat, said he was “not rushing to make major adjustments” following the legislative update. He pointed out sell-the-news trades and stretched prices in parts of the market. Investopedia
Senate panel advances digital assets bill after a 15-9 vote
The Senate committee advanced the bill in a 15-9 vote, pushing it to the full chamber, according to the panel. Chairman Tim Scott said it moves digital assets “into the sunlight.” Some in the market took the language as a sign Congress may be approaching market-structure regulations. banking.senate.gov
Crypto executives are calling the vote a milestone after years of effort. “It’s taken years of work to get to this point,” Miller Whitehouse-Levine, CEO of the Solana Policy Institute, told Reuters. Reuters
The bill may stall or get revised. Senate Banking Committee minority staff said the draft leaves out major illicit-finance gaps. They called out parts of decentralized finance, or DeFi, where money goes through code, not a middleman.
XRP traders are tracking two things this week. In Washington, investors want to see if the bill keeps support in both parties before the Senate vote. On markets, the focus is on whether ETF demand can move XRP toward $1.50. Bitcoin is still below $80,000 and rate worries are weighing on sentiment.
XRP is holding in a mixed tape at the moment. The token has drawn fresh institutional flows and there’s a clearer policy angle compared to last week. Other coins are still soft. XRP stays in focus, but it’s not obvious that bulls have real control yet.
