Key Takeaways:
XRP broke above a descending trendline on July 16 for the first time in seven weeks, as Ripple executives intensified lobbying for the CLARITY Act ahead of a Senate floor vote that could settle the token's legal status.
XRP rose 3.2% to $1.35 as of 14:30 UTC on July 16, after crypto analyst Cryptoinsightuk flagged a daily close above a descending trendline that had capped price action since late May, according to CoinGecko data. The move came as Ripple's leadership publicly urged lawmakers to support the CLARITY Act, the bill that would classify XRP as a commodity alongside Bitcoin and Ethereum from day one of enactment.
The CLARITY Act cleared the Senate Banking Committee in January with bipartisan support, but has not yet received a floor vote. The Senate is scheduled to begin its August recess on Aug. 7, leaving a narrow window for passage. Patrick J. Witt, executive director of the President's Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, said in a January interview on Crypto in America that he expected two to four Senate Banking Democrats to vote yes, calling a strong bipartisan vote "a great signal" for momentum.
XRP's breakout above the descending trendline at $1.30 shifts the technical setup. The token had traded below its 50-day and 200-day exponential moving averages since mid-February, with the 50-day EMA pulling further away from the 200-day EMA — a bearish configuration that had kept sellers in control. A sustained move above $1.50 would bring the 50-day EMA into play and signal a near-term trend reversal, while a break below the Feb. 6 low of $1.12 would expose the $1.00 support level.
What the CLARITY Act means for XRP
The bill's text, released by the Senate Banking Committee on Jan. 13, states that any token that serves as the primary asset of an exchange-traded fund listed on a national securities exchange and registered under Section 6 of the Securities Act as of Jan. 1, 2026, would not be required to file additional disclosures. That provision covers XRP, Solana, Litecoin, Hedera, Dogecoin and Chainlink — treating them the same as Bitcoin and Ethereum from a regulatory standpoint.
Ripple's endorsement of the bill carries weight because the company spent four years fighting the SEC over whether XRP was a security. Judge Analisa Torres ruled in July 2023 that XRP sales on public exchanges were not securities transactions, and the SEC dropped its remaining claims in 2024. The CLARITY Act would codify that outcome into statute, removing legal uncertainty that has constrained institutional adoption.
ETF flows and institutional demand
The US XRP-spot ETF market has recorded net inflows of $1.23 billion since trading began in November, according to issuer data. That contrasts with $4.6 billion in net outflows from the US Bitcoin-spot ETF market over the same period, reflecting divergent institutional positioning. XRP-spot ETFs reported $2.21 million in net outflows on Feb. 18 — only the fifth outflow day since the Canary XRP ETF began trading — but flows have slowed in recent weeks as the CLARITY Act's fate remained uncertain.
A Senate vote before the August recess would remove that uncertainty. If the bill passes, XRP's regulatory classification as a commodity would be locked in by statute, potentially accelerating ETF inflows and broadening the investor base. If it stalls, the token's price could retest the $1.00 level, where the weekly Relative Strength Index dropped to 29.6 in June — only the second oversold reading in more than a decade of weekly chart data. The first such signal, in June 2022, marked the exact bottom at $0.29, though the subsequent 1,100% rally did not begin until November 2024.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
