In the latest Ripple news, XRPprice entered August 2026 at $1.06, down approximately 43% from its January high of $2.41, with the $1.00 support level now functioning as the only demand zone bulls have successfully defended across the entire calendar year. The token’s weekly momentum readings have fallen to levels last seen in the 2022 bear market when XRP traded near $0.29.
This is not simply a correction after a strong run. It is a structural question about whether the 2026 XRP bull thesis, built on ETF inflows, regulatory clarity, and institutional adoption, can survive contact with the data now available.
EXPLORE: Best Meme Coins to Buy for August
XRP Technical Setup: Death Cross, Descending Channel, and the $1.20 Cap
The XRP price is trading below both its 50-day simple moving average near $1.21 and its 200-day SMA near $1.37, a configuration that technical analysts describe as a death cross, implying continued selling pressure absent a significant catalyst.
The 14-day Relative Strength Index sits near 38–41, per the Bitcoin Foundation’s June 2026 market analysis, indicating a market that is weakening but has not yet reached deeply oversold territory where mean-reversion buying typically accelerates.
Soruce: XRPUSD / Tradingview
Since late June, XRP has been confined between $1.00 and $1.18, with every attempted rally capped at the $1.18–$1.20 resistance band. That ceiling is explored in technical analysis of XRP’s descending channel structure, which shows repeated failures to break above the channel’s upper boundary, each failure reinforcing the compression.
The next meaningful resistance above $1.20 sits at $1.45, a level the Bitcoin Foundation analysis describes as one that could materially improve the longer-term technical picture if reclaimed.
Ripple News: XRP ETF Flows and the CLARITY Act Delay, Catalysts That Didn’t Arrive
The institutional demand story that underpinned most XRP price analysis heading into 2026 has not materialized at scale. Spot XRP ETFs recorded zero flows on 11 of July’s 22 trading days, taking in just $27.29 million for the entire month, according to SoSoValue data , against the $666 million the same vehicles gathered in their first month of trading in November 2025.
🚨Total July ETF inflows.
BTC: $172.43M
ETH: $365.17M
SOL: $14.62M$XRP: $27.29M
LINK: $4.54M
HBAR: $3.00M
LTC: $30.39K
HYPE: -$15.16M 💎 pic.twitter.com/TRUI3FtFSc— WEWO (@cryptoewewo) August 4, 2026
That collapse in XRP ETF inflows has stripped out the institutional buying momentum that analysts assumed would anchor XRP price above $1.20.
On the legislative side, the Senate set aside the CLARITY Act on July 27 to address other business before its recess, per 247 Wall St. The bill, which would permanently classify XRP as a commodity under federal law, cannot receive the vote institutional participants have been waiting on until lawmakers return in the fall.
The CLARITY Act delay removes the one regulatory catalyst that could have prompted a re-rating of XRP through August.
Sentiment and On-Chain Context: Exhausted Sellers, Absent Buyers
Approximately 60% of XRP’s circulating supply is held at a loss, with an average cost basis near $1.48, according to 247 Wall St. That cohort distribution is historically consistent with late-stage capitulation, holders sitting on realized losses of that depth have largely decided not to sell.
XRP held on exchanges has also dropped to roughly 1.6 billion tokens, its lowest level in seven years and approximately half the 3.76 billion parked there in October 2025, per CryptoQuant data.
The analytical question is no longer whether sellers are exhausted. It is whether buyers return before the $1 floor gives way on thin volume.
DISCOVER: Best Meme Coins to Buy in 2026
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Daniel Frances is a technical writer and Web3 educator specializing in macroeconomics and DeFi mechanics. A crypto native since 2017, Daniel leverages his background in on-chain analytics to author evidence-based reports and deep-dive guides. He holds certifications from The Blockchain Council, and is dedicated to providing “information gain” that cuts through market hype to find real-world blockchain utility.