Karachi, January 31, 2026, 22:40 PKT — Session ongoing as scheduled.
- XRP plunged over 11% on Saturday, marking its sharpest single-day decline since Oct. 10.
- Worries over the Federal Reserve leadership shuffle and a general risk-off mood in markets fueled the wider crypto sell-off.
- Traders are eyeing next week’s U.S. jobs report, searching for signals on rate cuts and liquidity moves.
By 17:13 GMT, XRP had dropped to $1.5564, plunging 11.19% on the day—its steepest one-day decline since Oct. 10, 2025. Bitcoin was down 4.65%, and ether tumbled 11.40%. XRP’s market cap shrank to roughly $97.9 billion, per Investing.com data. (Investing)
Investors are reevaluating the backing risky assets might receive from U.S. policy after Donald Trump named former Fed governor Kevin Warsh to head the central bank once Jerome Powell’s term ends in May. Warsh’s appointment requires Senate approval, but one Republican senator has vowed to block any Fed nominee until the Justice Department’s investigation into Powell is settled. (Reuters)
Crypto traders are jittery over any sign of tightening liquidity—the Fed’s “balance sheet” basically tracks its bond holdings and the cash those create. Damien Boey at Wilson Asset Management warned that “pulling the rug” on balance-sheet hedges can slam both gold and crypto simultaneously. Sean Dawson from Derive.xyz pointed to “fears around AI exuberance” following a steep fall in Microsoft shares. (Reuters)
Regulatory news remained in focus. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has launched proceedings to determine whether to approve a proposed NYSE Arca rule change that would allow listing the T. Rowe Price Active Crypto ETF. This fund would be authorized to hold a mix of assets including bitcoin, ether, and XRP, according to a notice in the Federal Register.
XRP, the token tied to Ripple’s payments system, saw its legal cloud lift last year. The SEC filed a joint stipulation that dropped appeals and closed its civil enforcement case against Ripple. This came after a May 2025 settlement, which involved a $125 million civil penalty, according to a Reuters Practical Law report. (Reuters)
Technical traders flagged key levels hit following a wave of forced selling. According to CoinDesk, slipping below $1.79 set off a “liquidation cascade” — a rapid unwind of leveraged positions — with $1.74 now standing as the next support zone and resistance eyed between $1.79 and $1.82. (CoinDesk)
The bigger threat for bulls is that policy uncertainty sparks a liquidity squeeze, extending beyond a single-day selloff. “It’s kind of difficult to assess how the market is going to accept this nomination,” said Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital Securities, highlighting doubts about White House influence. Brian Jacobsen at Annex Wealth Management described Warsh as “not a puppet of the President.” (Reuters)
Coming up, the U.S. January jobs report drops Friday, Feb. 6 at 8:30 a.m. ET. Then, the January consumer price index is set for release on Feb. 11. These two reports could shift rate-cut expectations and, in turn, impact crypto risk appetite. (Bls)
