New York, Jan 16, 2026, 10:11 AM EST — Regular session.
- XRP dropped roughly 2% after Washington’s efforts to introduce new crypto market regulations stalled.
- Coinbase’s CEO said the exchange can’t support the bill “in its current form.”
- Ripple highlighted new regulatory developments in Europe this week.
XRP dropped roughly 2% to $2.06 on Friday, deepening its retreat after a U.S. Senate committee put the brakes on a broad crypto market-structure bill.
This setback is significant since the bill aims to clarify how crypto tokens are regulated in the U.S., a demand the industry has pushed for years. Such moves can swiftly shift sentiment in the large, liquid coins.
This comes amid a hectic policy week for crypto in Washington, where traders had been betting that a workable framework was just around the corner.
Bitcoin slipped roughly 0.8% to near $95,200, while ether dropped about 1.4% to around $3,300, following the broader weakness seen in leading tokens.
The Senate Banking Committee canceled a scheduled markup — where lawmakers hash out and vote on amendments — after Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said the exchange couldn’t back the bill as it stands. “We’d rather have no bill than a bad bill,” Armstrong stated, though he expressed hope a deal could still be struck. Reuters
The bill, called the CLARITY Act, aims to define precisely when crypto tokens qualify as securities. It also tackles the ongoing debate over stablecoin rewards—those incentives linked to dollar-pegged tokens that banks warn might siphon deposits away from conventional banking.
The Senate Banking Committee’s calendar update revealed the Jan. 15 executive session to review H.R.3633 has been postponed.
Ripple, steering clear of Capitol Hill distractions, highlighted its licensing progress. This week, the company snagged preliminary approval for an electronic money institution licence in Luxembourg, aiming to broaden its payments services throughout Europe. “The EU was amongst the first major jurisdictions to introduce comprehensive digital assets regulation,” Ripple President Monica Long noted. Ripple
For now, the most immediate risk to XRP is straightforward: if the U.S. bill stalls or is altered in ways opposed by the industry, the market could fall back into uncertainty over which regulator—and which set of rules—will take charge.
Traders are focused on key upcoming deadlines in Congress: the Senate Agriculture Committee aims to release legislative text by Jan. 21, with a committee markup set for Jan. 27. They’re also tracking any new dates from the Banking Committee.
