XRP (CRYPTO:XRP) fell below $1 on August 11, breaking a support level it had held since November 2024, and it has since dropped under that line twice more. The coin has fallen 46% this year and 72% from its July 2025 peak of $3.65.
However, existing holders are not the ones selling, as XRP held on exchanges has fallen to its lowest level in seven years. The XRP price is crashing because the coin’s demand has dropped, and the CLARITY Act has been stuck in the Senate since June.
What Pushed XRP Under $1
XRP’s drop below $1 has two major causes. The first is that institutional money has stopped flowing into the token, and the second is the Senate leaving for the August recess without scheduling a vote for the CLARITY Act, leaving XRP without a catalyst until at least September.
How XRP Broke a Two-Year Support Level
XRP printed $0.9915 on August 11, its first trade under $1 since it last closed below the level on November 15, 2024 at $0.8929. It dipped under again on August 14, then a third time on August 18, when it traded as low as $0.989. The August 18 dip replaced the August 11 low as XRP’s lowest price this year.
The XRP price now trades at $1.01, back above the $1 line but below every moving average. Its 50-day average stands at $1.0969 and its 100-day at $1.1777, and both have capped every attempt to climb. XRP would need a close above the 20-day at $1.0572 to signal a recovery, while losing $0.99 could see it drop to $0.95.
Buying Dried Up While Holders Held On
Exchange-held XRP has fallen to about 1.6 billion tokens, roughly half the 3.76 billion held there when exchange balances peaked in October 2025, and the lowest in seven years, according to Cryptorank. Holders move coins onto an exchange when they intend to sell, so a pile shrinking by half says the opposite about their intentions.
Shrinking supply normally lifts crypto prices. XRP’s supply has halved while the price fell 46%, which tells shows the pressure is coming from the coin’s demand. Weekly inflows into XRP ETFs fell 93% to $1.01 million across August 3 to 7, down from $14.86 million the week before. Inflows recovered slightly the following week, with XRP ETFs recording $2.25 million from August 10 to 14.
Whale activity has picked up without lifting the price too. XRP Ledger transactions above $1 million surged 280% on August 18 to more than 38, according to CryptoQuant. Transaction counts alone do not show whether those whales were buying or selling. However, whale transfers into Binance have fallen to their lowest level since 2021, averaging around $61 million a month over the past quarter. Sellers move coins to Binance, and those transfers have dried up.
No Catalyst Until September
The CLARITY Act has stalled in the Senate since May, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed a cloture motion on August 8 to end debate and force a floor vote, now scheduled for September 15. Cloture is the procedural step that ends debate on a bill, and it requires 60 votes to pass, meaning at least seven Democrats would need to join all 53 Republicans.
The Federal Reserve’s next interest rate decision comes the day after, on September 16. So the XRP price has 27 days without a scheduled catalyst, then two of them inside 48 hours.
The Inflation Report and the Path Back Above $1
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the July Consumer Price Index on August 12, showing prices rose 3.4% year-over-year and 0.1% month-over-month, both in line with forecasts. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy, eased to 2.5% from 2.6% the prior month.
Softer inflation supports the case for Fed rate cuts, which would make borrowing cheaper and send money back into assets like XRP. The token has been missing that inflow all year, and it is the one thing that could improve without a single vote being cast in Washington.
Monthly XRP ETF inflows would need to return to May’s level of $131.94 million to pull supply off the market, since those funds have to buy and hold spot XRP to back every share they issue. Buyers have pushed XRP back above $1 after each of the three breaks so far. However, a fourth break could leave the token trading below a level it has held for nearly two years.
What’s Next for XRP
The XRP price is crashing because the coin’s demand has stalled, while the holders who own it have kept their coins off exchanges. Exchange supply is at a seven-year low, coins keep leaving Binance, and ETF inflows have fallen 93% with no scheduled event to reverse them before the cloture vote on September 15.
So XRP has to hold the $1 line for the next four weeks. A daily close below that would could see it drop to $0.95, and the XRP would be defending it without a catalyst until the Senate votes.
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