XRP fell below the $1.30 mark on Tuesday, September 17, 2026, following a 7.3% daily loss. The steep decline brought its total drawdown to 23% from its recent peak near $1.68. This price action stood in stark contrast to its underlying network, which had just wrapped up a month of robust activity.
Behind the red ink on the charts, institutional capital inflows and on-chain payment volumes told a completely different story.
Fundamentals Clash with Macro Pressure
The token had previously gained as much as 28.5% throughout August. That bullish momentum was fueled by spot XRP ETF products in the United States, which attracted a total of $153.55 million in inflows during the month. Notably, $150.28 million of that capital flowed in during the final two weeks of August alone.
Payment volumes recorded on the XRP Ledger also spiked 521% within the span of a single week. However, the massive surge was driven entirely by large-value transfers rather than an uptick in transaction frequency from everyday retail users.
Yet all that on-chain strength failed to hold up against broader market headwinds. Selling pressure on XRP stemmed from a tighter U.S. monetary policy backdrop following interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve. Market sentiment deteriorated further amid regulatory deadlock at the federal level after the CLARITY Act bill failed to clear the Senate.
Steep Valuation Deters Investors
Beyond macroeconomic pressures, XRP’s mega-cap status is beginning to cool investor interest. Royal Kane, a Dubai-based crypto investor, stated openly on X that he refuses to invest in XRP due to its bloated $81 billion market capitalization.
According to Kane, crypto assets with valuations in the tens of billions of dollars leave little room for exponential multiples. Instead, he pointed to Solana’s ‘Ethereum killer’ narrative, strong community backing for the Pepe token, and expanding real-world adoption for Zcash as setups offering far greater upside potential for traders.
Amid faltering demand and regulatory ambiguity, the circulating supply side has also expanded. On September 1, Ripple unlocked 1 billion tokens from its monthly escrow reserves, valued at roughly $1.38 billion at the time of release. Ripple has a consistent track record of returning the vast majority of that allocation back to escrow wallets to constrain circulating supply. However, when faced with Fed tightening and investor hesitation over an $81 billion valuation, fresh ETF inflows alone have not been enough to offset the selling tide.
Reported via crypto.news.
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Previously: 600-Page Crypto Bill Scrapped Over Single Ethics Rule - Triggers 10% XRP Plunge to $1.30
Disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only, not financial advice. Cryptocurrency assets are highly volatile and carry significant risk. Always do your own research (DYOR) and never invest more than you can afford to lose.
