XRP has fallen below the key $1.30 level after losing 7.3% on Tuesday, while Dubai-based crypto investor Royal Kane has ruled out buying the token because of its $81 billion market value.
Summary
- XRP has dropped 23% from its recent high near $1.68.
- Royal Kane cited XRP’s large market capitalization in rejecting an investment.
- The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 25 basis points on Sep. 16.
- The CLARITY Act failed to advance after a 50-49 Senate vote.
Royal Kane, a Dubai-based crypto investor, wrote on X that he would not invest in XRP at its present valuation, pointing to the token’s market capitalization as the main reason for his position.
“I would never invest in Ripple at this stage because its market cap is already too large,” Kane said.
Market data included in the source report placed XRP near $1.30, with a market capitalization of about $81.68 billion and 24-hour trading volume of $4.12 billion. The token was also down 29.18% since the start of 2026.
Kane argued that assets with lower valuations may offer more room to benefit from a strong investment story. He cited Solana’s earlier “Ethereum killer” label, the community growth surrounding Pepe, and Zcash’s adoption case as examples of narratives that attracted traders.
Rather than presenting a price target for XRP, he told investors to “find a coin with a compelling narrative for the coming years.”
XRP price has dropped 23% from its recent peak
Selling pressure has erased much of XRP’s latest rebound, pulling its price from a recent high near $1.68 to approximately $1.30. A move between the two levels amounts to a decline of about 23%.
The retreat followed a stronger period for XRP in August, when the token climbed from around $1 to a monthly high near $1.70. According to September escrow data, XRP gained 28.5% in August even after Ripple released 1 billion tokens from escrow on Sep. 1.
Ripple’s scheduled release was valued at about $1.38 billion at the time. The company historically returns much of each monthly allocation to escrow, limiting the amount that can enter circulation.
Institutional demand also supported the August rally. The report found that U.S. spot XRP exchange-traded funds attracted $153.55 million during the month, including $150.28 million over its final two weeks. XRP Ledger payment volume rose 521% in one week, driven by larger transfers rather than an increase in transaction count.
Price action has since reversed as traders have reacted to tighter U.S. monetary policy and another delay in federal crypto legislation. XRP fell 7.3% on Tuesday and traded around $1.31 after the Senate vote, according to figures cited in the source report.
Kane’s criticism focuses on XRP’s $81B valuation
At an estimated $81.68 billion, XRP’s market capitalization remains one of the largest in the digital asset market. Kane views that size as a limit on potential returns because the token would require substantial new capital to produce the percentage gains available to smaller assets.
His comments also included a claim that Ripple has “no products or revenue whatsoever.” Ripple is privately held and does not publish the same quarterly financial statements required from a U.S.-listed public company, leaving investors with less information about its revenue than they would receive from an exchange-listed business.
However, the company publicly operates several products and services. Its businesses include Ripple Payments, the RLUSD stablecoin, and Ripple Prime, the institutional brokerage formed after its acquisition of Hidden Road. Ripple has also announced custody and treasury services for corporate clients.
Kane’s investment thesis therefore separates XRP’s market value from his assessment of Ripple’s commercial operations. XRP is the native asset of the XRP Ledger, while Ripple is a private technology company that holds a substantial quantity of the token and develops services that can use the network.
The distinction matters because buying XRP does not provide equity ownership in Ripple, a claim on the company’s revenue or voting rights over its business. XRP holders instead gain exposure to the market price of the token, which can respond to network activity, liquidity, speculation, regulations, and Ripple-related developments.
Fed rate increase has raised pressure on risk assets
Macroeconomic conditions have added another source of uncertainty for XRP and other cryptocurrencies. On Sep. 16, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points, taking the target range to 3.75% to 4%.
The unanimous decision delivered the first U.S. rate increase since 2023. Projections released by the central bank showed that 12 of 18 officials expected additional increases during the year, according to the source report.
Higher interest rates can increase returns on U.S. government debt and money-market products, giving American investors more yield-bearing alternatives to cryptocurrencies. Digital assets do not provide a fixed return, and tighter financial conditions can reduce demand for speculative investments.
Before the decision, U.S. inflation data had strengthened expectations for a rate increase. As crypto.news previously reported, annual inflation reached 3.4% in August, while consumer prices rose 0.4% from the previous month.
Energy costs rose 2.1% during August, with gasoline prices climbing 3.9%. Core consumer prices, which exclude food and energy, increased 0.3% on the month, exceeding the 0.2% estimate cited in the report.
Prediction-market traders raised the probability of a quarter-point increase to 81% after the inflation release. Although such contracts represent wagers rather than official Fed guidance, their pricing showed that traders had largely prepared for higher borrowing costs before the meeting.
CLARITY Act defeat has left XRP policy questions open
Regulatory pressure increased on Sep. 15 when the U.S. Senate rejected cloture on the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act. The motion received 49 votes in favor and 50 against, falling 11 votes short of the 60 needed to open formal debate.
The vote carried particular importance for XRP because the legislation would divide oversight responsibilities between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Its treatment of network tokens could affect how XRP and other crypto assets are classified in U.S. markets.
Hours before the vote, Senate Republicans circulated a revised 635-page draft that added language covering ancillary assets. The proposal described an ancillary asset as a network token whose value depends on the managerial or entrepreneurial work of an originator or a related party.
Under the draft’s wording, XRP could have been treated as a digital commodity in secondary-market transactions regardless of the quantity controlled by Ripple. The proposal did not receive enough support to move into debate, leaving the existing legal and regulatory framework in place.
XRP still benefits from the 2023 ruling by U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres, who found that Ripple’s programmatic XRP sales on public exchanges did not constitute securities transactions. The same ruling found that the company’s direct institutional sales violated securities law, creating different treatment based on how the tokens were offered.
Negotiations have not ended despite the failed vote. Seven Senate Democrats have since reopened CLARITY Act talks and said the rejected cloture motion was “not the end” of the legislative effort.
The Senate’s official roll call shows that 49 lawmakers supported advancing the measure while 50 opposed it, meaning any renewed attempt would require at least 11 additional votes to reach the cloture threshold.
