An investor who put $1,000 into XRP on January 1, 2026, when the token traded around $1.84, would have picked up roughly 543.47 XRP. With the token now changing hands near $1.00, that position is worth about $543.47 today — a loss of $456.53, or 45.5%, over a little more than seven months.
The drawdown traces back to the October 11, 2025 sell-off, which accelerated a bear-market cycle that has historically followed Bitcoin halving events. Delays in passing the CLARITY Act, the US bill meant to establish clear regulatory rules for digital assets, compounded the selling pressure through the first half of 2026, even as XRP Ledger tokenization activity grew to more than $4 billion in assets. Competition for capital from the AI sector has also pulled investor attention away from crypto more broadly this year, according to Finbold's reporting.
Whales Are Buying the Dip
Large holders appear to be positioning for a turnaround. Wallets in the 100,000-to-100-million XRP range have accumulated roughly 600 million tokens over five weeks, including a single-day addition of 72 million XRP — worth about $72 million at current prices — on August 13. Broader whale wallets added more than 380 million XRP over the past week alone, a pace of accumulation that suggests conviction near the $1 support level XRP has held despite the year's steep losses.
The September Catalyst
The reason for that conviction has a specific date attached to it. Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed cloture on August 7 on the motion to proceed to H.R. 3633, the CLARITY Act, setting up a procedural vote for September 15 once the Senate returns from recess. The bill, which already passed the House 294-134 and cleared the Senate Banking Committee 15-9, would give the CFTC clear jurisdiction over digital-commodity markets — a classification XRP holders have watched closely given Ripple's long-running legal fight over the token's regulatory status. Clearing cloture requires 60 votes, meaning Republicans' 53 seats aren't enough on their own; at least seven Democrats or independents will need to cross over.
Related: Upbit and Bithumb to Delist STORJ, JASMY and TT on September 14
The cloture vote only advances the bill to formal Senate consideration rather than passing it outright, but for a token still down nearly half from where it started the year, it's the closest thing to a scheduled catalyst on the calendar.
