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Large XRP holders have been quietly loading up, and the market is starting to feel it. Over a 96-hour window, whale wallets added roughly 1.54 billion XRP — worth about $2.2 billion at the time — and the token has since climbed 8.22% in three days. Now, on-chain data is pointing to $1.60 as the next major test for that momentum.
The accumulation and the price move line up closely enough to draw attention, but the more interesting story sits in the supply data just above current levels — where a wall of previously transacted XRP could decide how far this run actually goes.
Whale Balances Jumped Fast, Then Held
The buying wasn’t gradual. According to a September 19 update using Santiment data, whale holdings rose from around 8.1 billion XRP to approximately 9.7 billion XRP in just four days. The steepest single jump came between September 16 and September 17, and instead of fading, those elevated balances stuck around through the following two days.
That kind of concentrated buying — especially sustained rather than flipped quickly — tends to get read as conviction rather than a short-term trade. Shortly after, XRP’s price followed with its 8.22% advance.
$1.60 Stands Out as the Next Supply Cluster
Separate data from Glassnode, using UTXO Realized Price Distribution (URPD), shows where large amounts of XRP previously changed hands. The biggest cluster sitting just above the current price zone is around $1.60, representing roughly 2.5 billion XRP in historical transaction volume — the largest such concentration in that immediate range.
Below $1.60, the data shows a comparatively smaller cluster near $1.49. Above it, more clusters appear at $1.68, $1.86, $2.19, and $2.29, with the $1.86 and $2.29 levels each holding more than 2 billion $XRP in prior transaction volume.
It’s worth being precise about what URPD actually shows: it maps where XRP last moved, not what holders at those levels intend to do now. A large cluster can act as resistance if holders look to exit near their entry point, or it can get absorbed without much resistance at all. The data flags the level — it doesn’t predict the outcome.
What the Combination Signals
Two separate but measurable trends are now overlapping: a $2.2 billion increase in whale holdings, and an 8.22% price advance in the days that followed. Together, they suggest accumulation may be playing some role in the recent strength, even if correlation alone doesn’t prove causation.
The $1.60 zone is now the level to watch. A clean break through it would put XRP past its nearest major supply cluster, with $1.68, $1.86, and beyond becoming the next reference points on the chart. Failure to clear it, however, could stall momentum right where the historical trading data says the most XRP previously exchanged hands.
Disclaimer: The information in this article is for general purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. The author’s views are personal and may not reflect the views of Chain Affairs. Before making any investment decisions, you should always conduct your own research. Chain Affairs is not responsible for any financial losses.
#XRPUSDT🚨

XRP traders are placing a big bet against a rally that’s already outpaced them. Despite the token climbing to $1.482 and posting an 18.5% recovery from last week’s low, short positions have swelled past $2 billion in 24-hour volume — and smart money is signaling it thinks the bounce won’t last.
The setup is unusual. Retail and whale traders across major exchanges remain firmly bullish, yet the professional trading crowd known as “smart money” is leaning hard the other way. That split is setting the stage for a tense next few days in the $XRP market.
Retail Is Bullish, Smart Money Isn’t Buying It
On Binance, retail traders show a 2.25 long/short ratio — solidly bullish — while whale accounts go even further at 2.62, landing in extremely bullish territory. OKX and Bybit tell a similar story, with Bybit’s retail and whale positions both hitting 3.12, the most lopsided long bias of the three exchanges.
Smart money sees it differently. On Binance and Bybit, this more sophisticated trading cohort is rated extremely bearish, suggesting these traders view the current rebound as a fade opportunity rather than the start of a sustained move. OKX bucks the trend, with its smart money reading extremely bullish — the lone dissenting voice in an otherwise skeptical camp.
Despite that split, short-side taker volume edged out longs over the past day, at 50.67% versus 49.33% — a gap worth roughly $60 million in dollar terms.
Shorts Are Getting Burned Across Every Timeframe
The market has already started punishing the bears. Liquidation data shows shorts have taken the overwhelming share of losses at every interval measured. Over the last 24 hours, short liquidations totaled nearly $8 million against just $1.48 million for longs. That imbalance holds in the hourly data too — in the past hour alone, shorts accounted for $4.55 million of $4.67 million in total liquidations.
Volatility topped 8% during the move, sweeping out nearly 1,928 traders globally, with one single liquidation event wiping out over $1 million during Sunday’s morning session.
Where XRP Goes From Here
The technical picture hinges on a few key thresholds. Holding above $1.48 could squeeze more shorts out of position, opening a path toward $1.60–$1.65 resistance and potentially $1.80 if that zone breaks. But if the bearish smart-money read proves correct, $1.35–$1.38 becomes the first line of defense, with the September 16 low of $1.25 as the fallback floor.
For now, the tug-of-war between crowd optimism and smart-money caution leaves XRP at a genuine inflection point — one where the next move could validate either side decisively.
Disclaimer: The information in this article is for general purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. The author’s views are personal and may not reflect the views of Chain Affairs. Before making any investment decisions, you should always conduct your own research. Chain Affairs is not responsible for any financial losses.
#XRP $XRP

A major push to give digital assets clear regulatory footing in the US just hit a wall. The CLARITY Act failed to clear a Senate cloture vote on Tuesday, falling short 49-50 as Democrats cited concerns tied to President Donald Trump’s crypto holdings. But the bill’s supporters aren’t calling it dead — and some are already pointing to regulators as a fallback plan.
A Narrow Miss, Not a Full Stop
The vote needed 60 votes to advance and came up one short of that threshold. For an industry that has spent years lobbying for a defined rulebook covering securities, commodities, and money transmission, the result stung. Still, the response from crypto leaders wasn’t panic — it was a pivot.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse pointed to the SEC and CFTC as the next line of defense, noting that both agencies, under Chair Paul Atkins and Chair Mike Selig respectively, are positioned to keep working on rules even without new legislation. Atkins reinforced that message himself just a day earlier at the Solana Policy Institute Summit, telling attendees the agency would push for clearer crypto rules regardless of what Congress does.
Why Agency Rules Aren’t a Full Substitute
Not everyone sees regulatory rulemaking as an adequate stand-in for actual law. NEAR’s chief legal officer, Abhishek Vaidyanathan, warned that relying on agency guidance leaves firms stuck making case-by-case calls instead of planning around fixed rules — a real problem for companies trying to set budgets for 2027. Bitget Wallet COO Alvin Kan echoed that concern, saying the stalled vote leaves lingering uncertainty over how existing rules apply across different crypto products.
The timing adds pressure. Vaidyanathan noted the House has already canceled session weeks around September 21 and 28, and the Senate won’t resume its work period until October 5 — just weeks before the November 3 election. That leaves a narrow window for any second attempt this year.
The Path Forward Remains Open, Barely
There’s still a procedural route back to a vote. Senator Thom Tillis has moved to reconsider Tuesday’s failed cloture attempt, keeping the bill technically alive. 1inch chief legal officer Orest Gavryliak framed the setback as a delay rather than a final verdict, noting that bills of this scale rarely pass in one clean attempt.
Markets, though, aren’t betting on a quick turnaround. Odds on Polymarket that the CLARITY Act becomes law in 2026 dropped to just 5% following the vote — the lowest reading since the market opened in January. Whether the bill gets a second shot before year’s end, or waits for the next Congress, now depends largely on how much legislative runway is left.
Disclaimer: The information in this article is for general purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. The author’s views are personal and may not reflect the views of Chain Affairs. Before making any investment decisions, you should always conduct your own research. Chain Affairs is not responsible for any financial losses.

XRP’s price chart hasn’t given holders much to celebrate since the token peaked near $1.69 in late August. But beneath the surface, a different story is playing out — and it involves some of the biggest wallets in the market quietly walking away from exchanges.
On-chain analytics firm CryptoQuant reports that whale-sized XRP transactions — those moving 1 million tokens or more — pulled over $165 million off major exchanges on September 11. That’s the largest single-day withdrawal of this size since late February, a signal that shouldn’t be brushed aside even as XRP continues to trade well below its recent highs.
Binance Leads a Broad Exodus
The bulk of the movement traced back to Binance, which alone saw 85.4 million XRP — roughly $115 million — leave the platform that day. That’s close to 70% of the entire withdrawal total across all exchanges tracked.
Binance’s outflows weren’t limited to the whale tier, either. Mid-sized transactions, those between 100,000 and 1 million XRP, accounted for another 16.38 million tokens leaving the exchange, worth about $22 million. Smaller wallets moving 10,000 to 100,000 XRP added a further 9.6 million tokens to the exit count.
Other major venues followed the same pattern, if on a smaller scale. Bybit saw over 20 million $XRP
withdrawn from its largest transaction tier, worth roughly $27 million, plus additional outflows from mid-sized wallets. OKX recorded $9.45 million in whale withdrawals, while Upbit — South Korea’s biggest exchange — moved out 6.1 million tokens worth about $9.15 million. Bithumb rounded out the list with 4 million XRP in whale outflows.
Price Reaction Was Muted, Then Reversed
Despite the scale of the withdrawals, XRP’s price didn’t immediately take off. The token spiked intraday to $1.43 before slipping back to close the day at $1.35 — still enough for a 1.64% daily gain that snapped a three-day losing streak.
That disconnect between heavy withdrawal activity and modest price movement is worth noting. Large-scale exchange outflows are often read as bullish, since tokens moving to cold storage typically signal reduced intent to sell. But CryptoQuant’s data also flagged a spike in whale deposits into exchanges on the same day — meaning the picture wasn’t one-sided.
What It Means Going Forward
Even with competing inflows, withdrawals still outpaced deposits by a wide margin on September 11. Whether this marks the start of a longer accumulation trend or a one-off shuffle of funds remains unclear. What is clear is that XRP’s biggest holders are actively repositioning at a moment when the broader market remains cautious — and that kind of activity tends to draw attention regardless of what price does next.
Disclaimer: The information in this article is for general purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. The author’s views are personal and may not reflect the views of Chain Affairs. Before making any investment decisions, you should always conduct your own research. Chain Affairs is not responsible for any financial losses.

The CLARITY Act‘s bid to advance through the Senate came up short on Tuesday, with the cloture motion drawing 49 votes in favor and 50 against — 11 short of the 60 needed to move the bill to floor debate. It’s the outcome crypto markets had been bracing for after weeks of stalled negotiations, and it now leaves the legislation’s future genuinely uncertain.
With fewer than 36 legislative days remaining before a new Congress is sworn in following November’s midterms, the bill is unlikely to see meaningful movement for the rest of the year. That timeline effectively pushes any resolution on federal crypto oversight — including how authority is split between the CFTC and SEC — into 2027 at the earliest.
What Killed the Bill’s Momentum
The legislation had already been fragile heading into Tuesday. It stalled ahead of Congress’s August recess over ethics provisions meant to stop government officials and their families from issuing or profiting from digital assets while in office. President Trump had signed off on most of a bipartisan proposal to toughen those restrictions just before the vote, which briefly looked like it might be enough to get the bill across the finish line.
That momentum didn’t hold. A coalition of 18 state attorneys general came out against the bill on Monday, arguing it would weaken states’ ability to police crypto fraud and misconduct — a late objection that added to existing doubts among Senate Democrats about whether the ethics language went far enough.
Markets React Fast and Hard
The financial fallout was immediate. Bitcoin $BTC dropped more than 5% on the day, briefly slipping below $75,000 before recovering somewhat to trade near $76,000. Crypto-linked equities took an even sharper hit: Coinbase shares fell 9.9%, and Circle dropped roughly 10%.
The selloff spread across the sector. Bitcoin treasury companies were hit hard, with American Bitcoin down about 8% and both Strategy and Strive falling roughly 5%. Mining stocks followed the same pattern, with Riot Platforms down about 6%, CleanSpark down nearly 5%, Hut 8 down more than 4%, and IREN down almost 4%. The breadth of the decline — spanning exchanges, treasury firms, and miners alike — suggests investors read the failed vote as a setback for the industry’s regulatory outlook broadly, not just for one segment.
Industry Reaction Split Between Frustration and Defiance
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong had spent months as one of the bill’s most visible advocates, calling it, as far back as May, the strongest and most bipartisan position the legislation had ever held. By August, he’d framed the stakes bluntly, predicting the Senate would either deliver 60 votes on September 15 or regulatory clarity would arrive anyway through CFTC and SEC rulemaking. Just before Tuesday’s vote, he made a final public push, warning that history — and crypto voters — wouldn’t forget how senators chose to act.
Not everyone in the industry shared his focus on legislative clarity. Strategy co-founder Michael Saylor offered a different take after the vote failed, suggesting Bitcoin itself, not Congress, is the only clarity that matters.
What Comes Next
For now, the core questions the CLARITY Act was meant to settle — which regulator oversees which parts of the crypto market, and what rules govern the space — remain open. Whether that gap gets filled through renewed legislative talks, agency rulemaking, or continued regulatory ambiguity will likely shape how the industry operates well into next year.
Disclaimer: The information in this article is for general purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. The author’s views are personal and may not reflect the views of Chain Affairs. Before making any investment decisions, you should always conduct your own research. Chain Affairs is not responsible for any financial losses.

US spot Bitcoin ETFs snapped a three-week inflow streak last week, posting $462.7 million in net outflows — a sharp reversal after what had been the strongest run of 2026 for the category. According to Farside Investors, withdrawals hit every trading session from Tuesday through Friday, following a holiday-shortened week that had already seen $166.8 million exit the funds.
The selling intensified midweek. Thursday brought $282.7 million in outflows, the largest single-day withdrawal since July, according to SoSoValue. Friday’s pace slowed to $13.2 million, but the losing streak still stretched to four straight days. ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF took the biggest hit at $234.2 million, followed by Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust ETF at $129.1 million. Even BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF and Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund weren’t spared, losing $52.5 million and $50.7 million respectively. Despite the pullback, Bitcoin ETFs are still up roughly $307.3 million for September.
Ether ETFs told a different story. After a choppy start — outflows on Tuesday and Thursday, a small gain on Wednesday — the funds turned sharply positive on Friday with $216.4 million in net inflows, pushing the week’s total to nearly $197 million. BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust ETF led the surge with $148.8 million, followed by 21Shares Core Ethereum ETF at $29.1 million.
The EU Gives Crypto Wallet Makers a 24-Hour Reporting Clock
Separately, the European Union has laid out strict new cybersecurity obligations for crypto wallet providers. Under the Cyber Resilience Act, which took effect Friday, hardware and software wallet makers must report actively exploited vulnerabilities within 24 hours of becoming aware of them, followed by a full notification within 72 hours. A final report is due within 14 days of a fix becoming available, or within a month for more severe incidents.
The European Commission framed the rules as a consumer and business protection measure, and the requirements apply broadly to any product with digital elements sold in the EU — not just crypto-specific hardware. For wallet providers, it adds a tight compliance window to an already complex regulatory landscape in Europe.
Senate Republicans Make Their “Final” CLARITY Act Offer
Back in Washington, Senate Republicans released revised text of the CLARITY Act on Sunday, aiming to win over Democratic support ahead of Tuesday’s procedural vote. The 635-page proposal, put forward by Senate Banking Digital Assets Subcommittee Chair Cynthia Lummis along with Chairmen John Boozman and Tim Scott, includes notable changes to ethics rules for government officials involved with digital assets, along with updates to the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act and stablecoin yield provisions.
Lummis said the new ethics language had been agreed to directly by President Trump, describing it as holding elected officials, judges, and their spouses to some of the toughest ethics standards in US history. A Republican aide characterized the release as a final offer to Democrats ahead of Tuesday’s 2:15 p.m. ET vote, which will decide whether the bill can advance toward full Senate consideration.
Revolut Discloses a Breach Tied to a Fake Government Email
Rounding out the day’s news, fintech company Revolut disclosed that customer data — including passport copies, verification selfies, and full transaction histories — was exposed after the company responded to fraudulent information requests. The requests appeared to come from a legitimate government agency email domain and passed Revolut’s authentication checks before the company determined they weren’t genuine.
Revolut notified affected customers on Friday and said it has since blocked the impersonating address, alerted the government agency being spoofed, and informed law enforcement and financial regulators. The incident underscores how sophisticated impersonation scams can slip past even established verification systems.
Disclaimer: The information in this article is for general purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. The author’s views are personal and may not reflect the views of Chain Affairs. Before making any investment decisions, you should always conduct your own research. Chain Affairs is not responsible for any financial losses.

Bitcoin’s failure to hold above $80,000 after its recent rally might look like a warning sign, but CoinMarketCap Head of Research Alice Liu doesn’t see it that way. Speaking with Cointelegraph on Trade Secrets, Liu said she believes the market has likely already found its floor — pointing back to June’s drop to roughly $59,000, a level about 53% below Bitcoin’s October all-time high near $126,100.
Since then, Bitcoin has clawed back meaningful ground. Prices touched $81,600 in early September, marking a roughly 28% rally from mid-August lows. That move was enough to push CoinMarketCap’s Crypto Fear & Greed Index back into “Greed” territory, a notable shift after months of the index sitting in “Fear.”
Why Liu Is Watching Hyperliquid Closely
While Bitcoin dominates headlines, Liu argues some of the more compelling action right now is happening elsewhere — specifically in tokenized real-world assets and perpetual futures markets. She’s been tracking RWA perps, contracts tied to tokenized stocks, ETFs, and indices, and singles out Hyperliquid as a project worth watching on two separate fronts: network activity and token price.
Liu noted that trading volume in tokenized perps has started shifting toward centralized exchanges. Binance’s entry into the RWA perps space has pulled significant volume and liquidity away from platforms like Hyperliquid, with Binance now controlling roughly half the market by her estimate. Still, she said Hyperliquid remains the clear leader among decentralized exchanges, continuing to aggregate liquidity and serve as a hub for product development in that corner of the market.
On price, Liu pointed to a different driver altogether: buybacks. Hyperliquid’s token recently hit an all-time high around $86, and Liu credits much of that momentum to the project’s aggressive buyback program, funded by more than $400 million in revenue spent repurchasing its own tokens. With only a small portion of Hyperliquid’s total token supply currently unlocked, she expects future unlocks to happen gradually rather than all at once — a factor that could help cushion price pressure.
That said, Liu flagged an important dependency: Hyperliquid’s buybacks rely on sustained network revenue. Whether activity stays strong enough to keep funding them is, in her view, one of the key things to track going forward.
A More Cautious Take on AI Tokens
Liu’s optimism doesn’t extend evenly across the market. She’s notably more skeptical of the AI-crypto narrative, especially tokens that surged during the AI hype cycle of late 2023 without much underlying utility or infrastructure. She said these projects now face direct competition from actual AI stocks and established tech companies — competition she believes many of them aren’t equipped to win. In her view, purely speculative AI tokens with no real infrastructure behind them could eventually go to zero.
She was quicker to distinguish those from legitimate AI infrastructure projects, which she described as solid and likely to retain real utility — though she still expects even the strongest of them to trade at a discount compared to where hype alone might otherwise push them.
A Measured View on Bitcoin’s Long-Term Ceiling
Zooming back out to Bitcoin, Liu believes the broader crypto market remains underappreciated as a place to store value given the current economic climate. But when it comes to long-term price targets, she’s noticeably more conservative than voices like Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood, both of whom have floated the idea of Bitcoin reaching $1 million by 2030.
Liu’s own estimate lands closer to $500,000 by that timeframe. She didn’t rule out the possibility of Bitcoin eventually hitting $1 million, but said she’d rather stick with a more grounded number for now.
Disclaimer: The information in this article is for general purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. The author’s views are personal and may not reflect the views of Chain Affairs. Before making any investment decisions, you should always conduct your own research. Chain Affairs is not responsible for any financial losses

Crypto commentator BULLRUNNERS is urging XRP holders to act now, warning that 118 days remain in what he calls the first tax year where brokers must report cost basis on certain digital asset transactions. The warning centers on Form 1099-DA, a new IRS reporting form tied to Treasury Department rules that reshape how crypto transactions get documented starting in 2026.
Until now, brokers typically reported only the proceeds from a digital asset sale — not what the holder originally paid for it. That’s changing, and BULLRUNNERS says the shift creates real record-keeping obligations for anyone holding XRP across multiple platforms.
Not All XRP Gets Treated the Same Way
According to BULLRUNNERS, the new rules split holdings into two categories: covered and non-covered digital assets. XRP that was both acquired and held with the same broker during 2026 generally falls into the covered category, meaning that broker is responsible for reporting the cost basis.
But XRP purchased before 2026 doesn’t get that same treatment. Neither does XRP that’s been moved between exchanges or wallets, since the broker receiving the transfer typically has no way of knowing what was originally paid for it. For holders who’ve been in XRP for years and moved coins between cold storage, exchanges, and other wallets — a common pattern — that means a meaningful chunk of their holdings could fall outside any broker-reported cost basis. In those cases, a broker may report the sale proceeds while simply leaving the cost basis field blank.
BULLRUNNERS was blunt about what that means for holders who don’t have their own records. As he put it, the IRS does not assume a fair purchase price was paid — it doesn’t assume anything at all.
Also Read: XRP Needs Two Breakouts to Reach $2.00 — Here’s What Traders Are Watching
Why “One Universal Pool” No Longer Works
Another shift BULLRUNNERS flagged involves Revenue Procedure 2024-28, which changes how digital asset records are tracked. He said holders should stop treating their $XRP P as a single combined pool for cost-basis purposes. Instead, basis now needs to be tracked per location — meaning exchanges, hardware wallets, and on-chain wallets can each require their own separate records of units held, acquisition dates, and original cost.
He also pointed to safe-harbor provisions, effective since January 1, 2025, that allow holders to allocate unused basis across different locations — but only if the underlying records exist to support it.
BULLRUNNERS noted that unlike certain stablecoin transactions with a $10,000 reporting threshold, or specified NFTs with a $600 threshold, XRP doesn’t get an equivalent carveout under these rules. He also raised the broader point that Form 1099-DA can link a public blockchain address to identifying information submitted by a regulated broker.
BULLRUNNERS’ core message is about control: holders who document their own positions now have a clearer, more defensible record than those who leave it to be pieced together later. He’s encouraging XRP holders to gather records before year-end and bring them to a qualified tax professional, while pointing to Treasury Decision 10000, Revenue Procedure 2024-28, and IRS Form 1099-DA guidance as key reference points. He also noted that his content is educational and isn’t a substitute for professional tax advice.
Disclaimer: The information in this article is for general purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. The author’s views are personal and may not reflect the views of Chain Affairs. Before making any investment decisions, you should always conduct your own research. Chain Affairs is not responsible for any financial losses.

XRP traders are zeroing in on two price levels that could decide whether the token has real momentum toward $2.00 or stays stuck trading sideways. According to an analysis from trader Bird_XRPL, shared by crypto commentator XRP Update, $1.42 and $1.56 are the two resistance zones XRP needs to clear before a stronger rally becomes likely.
The framing is straightforward: it’s not enough to just push through those prices. XRP Update described it as a “two breakouts” setup, where $1.42 needs to fall first, followed by $1.56. But the real test comes after the breakout — both levels need to flip from resistance into support. If that happens, the analysis suggests the move toward $2.00 could speed up considerably.
Why Holding Matters More Than Breaking Through
This distinction between breaking a level and holding above it is central to the whole thesis. A quick spike above $1.42 or $1.56 that fades right back down wouldn’t confirm much — XRP would likely stay locked in its current trading range. But a breakout that sticks, where former resistance starts acting as a support floor, would signal genuine buying strength behind the move.
Bird_XRPL, responding to questions in the comments, acknowledged this isn’t guaranteed. Asked what happens if those levels keep rejecting price, Bird said XRP could just as easily chop sideways for a while, form a wedge pattern, or stay range-bound rather than break out cleanly.
Sell Walls Are the Immediate Obstacle
Bird pointed to sell walls sitting around both resistance levels as the first hurdle XRP has to clear. Even so, the analyst expects those walls to eventually get absorbed, pointing to broader market conditions as the reason for staying optimistic. Bird specifically cited the fact that Bitcoin and Ethereum have already broken into fresh territory with strong liquidity behind them, arguing that XRP tends to follow when the two largest cryptocurrencies are running.
Other traders weighed in with similar targets. One commentator, Sarah_615h, noted XRP had pulled back to $1.36 and argued that clearing $1.45 could open the door to a move above $1.80. Another trader, RIPPLE KING, pointed to $1.42–$1.43 as the first key zone and $1.55–$1.60 as the second, saying a volume-backed breakout through both areas could put $2.00 realistically in play.
Nothing Confirmed Yet
It’s worth being clear about where things actually stand: neither breakout has happened yet. This is a roadmap, not a confirmation. XRP Update’s analysis lays out the conditions bulls need to see — a break and hold above $1.42, then the same at $1.56 — rather than declaring the move already underway.
For now, the path to $2.00 hinges on whether XRP can turn resistance into support at both levels, a test that will likely play out over the coming days and weeks.
Disclaimer: The information in this article is for general purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. The author’s views are personal and may not reflect the views of Chain Affairs. Before making any investment decisions, you should always conduct your own research. Chain Affairs is not responsible for any financial losses.

Bitcoin traders are bracing for a stretch of 24 hours that could reshape the market’s near-term direction. On September 15, the US Senate is set to vote on whether to advance the CLARITY Act, the crypto market structure bill that has been stuck in negotiations over anti-money-laundering provisions and ethics rules. Less than a day later, the Federal Reserve wraps up its two-day policy meeting with a decision on interest rates.
Neither event happens in isolation. Coming so close together, they create a compressed window where regulatory clarity and monetary policy could either reinforce each other or cancel each other out — and traders are trying to price in outcomes they can’t fully predict.
What’s at Stake in the Senate
Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed cloture on the CLARITY Act‘s motion to proceed before the August recess, setting up a vote that needs 60 votes to clear. The bill cleared the Senate Banking Committee back in May by a bipartisan 15-9 margin, but disagreements over anti-money-laundering standards and ethics restrictions have slowed momentum since then.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has already weighed in, cautioning that a failed vote would send what he called a troubling signal to US allies watching how America regulates digital assets. If the motion fails to reach 60 votes, analysts say it could stall the bill’s chances of passing before the end of 2026 — a setback that would remove one of the clearer near-term catalysts crypto markets have been counting on.
The Fed’s Rate Call Adds a Second Layer of Uncertainty
Just as the Senate outcome lands, attention shifts to the Federal Reserve. The Federal Open Market Committee meets September 15 and 16, with the rate decision due on the second day. A rate hike tends to strengthen the dollar, which historically weighs on Bitcoin and other risk assets. Leaving rates unchanged could have the opposite effect, especially since prediction markets currently lean toward expecting a hike — meaning a hold could catch some traders off guard.
To gauge possible outcomes, CCN asked four AI models — ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Grok — to estimate how Bitcoin might react to different combinations of these two events. Their estimates ranged widely: a slide toward $55,000 if the CLARITY Act stalls and the Fed hikes, up to a swift move back above $100,000 if both outcomes favor crypto.
Also Read: XRP Ledger Tops Global Charts With $3.6 Billion in RWA Inflows
Long-Term Targets Still Loom in the Background
Even as short-term volatility dominates the conversation, longer-range forecasts continue to circulate. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has pointed to $400,000 as a plausible long-term target if Bitcoin captures a larger share of the global store-of-value market. Bernstein’s Gautam Chhugani has laid out a base case of $150,000 by mid-2027 and a bull case of $500,000 by 2029. ARK Invest’s most aggressive scenario puts Bitcoin near $1.5 million by 2030.
None of those targets hinge directly on this week’s votes. But the regulatory clarity — or lack of it — and the monetary backdrop these decisions set will shape the conditions those longer-term bets depend on.
Disclaimer: The information in this article is for general purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. The author’s views are personal and may not reflect the views of Chain Affairs. Before making any investment decisions, you should always conduct your own research. Chain Affairs is not responsible for any financial losses.

While $XRP 's price has struggled this year — down 27% YTD despite the August bounce — its underlying network is quietly dominating a completely different metric: real-world asset inflows.
The numbers:
XRP Ledger has pulled in $3.6B in RWA inflows in 2026, the highest of ANY blockchain tracked. That puts it ahead of:
BNB Chain — $2.6B
Stellar — $2.5B
Solana — $2.2B
Ethereum — $1.2B
That's a $2.4B lead over Ethereum specifically.
What's driving it?
Not stablecoins — this $3.6B figure excludes them entirely. The real story is commodities and credit:
Justoken's JMWH: $2.229BCRX Digital Assets: ~$1B
Together, those two alone make up 89% of XRPL's entire RWA growth this year.
For scale: XRPL's RWA market was worth just $226.8M at the end of 2025. This year's growth alone is already 16x what the network added in all of 2025.
The stablecoin bonus:
Add in stablecoin growth (~$1B, mostly from RLUSD) and XRPL's total tokenized-asset inflows hit $4.4B. That's enough for 3rd place globally when stablecoins are counted across all chains — behind TRON ($11.9B) and HyperEVM ($6B).
Bottom line: Price action and network fundamentals are telling two very different stories right now. XRP the token is struggling. XRPL the network is winning the RWA race outright. 🔥
#XRP #RWA #XRPL #RealWorldAssets #Tokenization

Gen Z investors on Binance are shifting more of their equity activity toward exchange-traded funds, a trend that stands out against the platform’s older, more stock-focused user base. New data from Binance Research shows ETFs made up 25% of the cohort’s trading volume in early August — a jump that signals a generational change in how young traders approach markets.
The Numbers Behind the Shift
The trend has been building for weeks. ETFs accounted for 21.9% of Gen Z’s net equity inflows in July, up from 18.5% in June. Over the same period, the share going to individual stocks slipped from 77% to 74.2%. It’s a modest but consistent move, and it suggests younger traders are leaning toward diversified exposure rather than picking single names.
Binance Research pulled the numbers from a broader study comparing Gen Z with Millennials, Gen X and Baby Boomers across direct equities, tokenized stocks and traditional finance perpetuals, looking at trading frequency, net flows and leverage use.
Cautious by Comparison
One theme runs through nearly every metric: Gen Z trades less aggressively than older cohorts. They averaged just 13 monthly trades in TradFi perpetuals, well below Millennials’ 17 and Gen X’s 16.5. They also steered clear of leveraged and inverse ETFs — 88.2% of Gen Z perpetual accounts saw no activity in those products at all, a higher abstention rate than Millennials or Gen X.
The buy-and-hold instinct shows up elsewhere too. Among Gen Z’s direct-equity accounts, 22% have never placed a single sell order — more than Gen X’s 19% and far more than Baby Boomers’ 9%. Their favorite names to accumulate: Broadcom, Tesla and the Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF.
Binance noted its direct-equities product only reached meaningful scale in June, so the sample size and time frame remain limited.
Tokenized Stocks Have Their Own Race Underway
Separately, Binance’s bStocks briefly passed Kraken’s xStocks to become the second-largest tokenized stock issuer, less than two months after launch, holding $610.6 million in tokenized stock value on Tuesday versus xStocks’ $601.2 million. By Friday, the lead had flipped back to xStocks. Ondo Finance still leads the field overall. The broader tokenized stock market keeps growing regardless, hitting roughly $2.43 billion in tracked value, up about 5% over the past month.
Together, the data paints a picture of a generation trading carefully, favoring funds over speculation, even as the tokenized asset race around them heats up.
Disclaimer: The information in this article is for general purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. The author’s views are personal and may not reflect the views of Chain Affairs. Before making any investment decisions, you should always conduct your own research. Chain Affairs is not responsible for any financial losses.