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The $XRP price slid 5% on Wednesday as a wider market pullback dragged most major tokens lower, knocking the altcoin back to roughly $1.43. Experts point to the same recurring forces behind the swing: persistent geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and a shortage of fresh, bullish catalysts.
Despite the near-term weakness, market observers remain upbeat about $XRP’s longer-term prospects, centering their optimism on an anticipated policy development in Washington.
Potential Surge In Adoption And ETF Inflows
Industry analysts widely believe that passage of the CLARITY Act — the proposed crypto market-structure bill in the US Congress — would materially improve $XRP’s institutional outlook by formally classifying the token as a digital commodity.
That legal status would place $XRP on a regulatory footing similar to Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) and, according to proponents, remove a major barrier to large-scale adoption by banks, asset managers, and payment providers.
In a new analysis, Sam Daodu of 24/7 Wall St. argued that the CLARITY Act is the single most important catalyst that could propel the $XRP price past key resistance levels.
He noted that commodity designation would allow US banks to use $XRP for cross-border settlement via Ripple’s payment rails without the looming uncertainty that a regulatory reclassification might later introduce.
That legal clarity, Daodu said, would unlock institutional confidence and encourage sizeable inflows into $XRP investment products such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
$XRP Price Targets Lifted
Daodu also cited forecasts from Standard Chartered’s Geoffrey Kendrick, who previously set an $8 target for $XRP in 2026, premised on the passage of the CLARITY Act. Kendrick’s model anticipates $4 billion to $8 billion in cumulative ETF inflows by year-end if the bill passes.
Consensus among many analysts places the $XRP price between $5 and $10 should the legislation clear Congress, with an $8 price implying a market capitalization near $490 billion — a level Daodu argues is plausible if banks adopt $XRP for actual payment use rather than the token remaining a retail trading vehicle.
Daodu went further in outlining further upside scenarios: if the CLARITY Act were approved and Ripple’s application for a master account at the Federal Reserve were also successful by late 2026, some models project $XRP could trade in a $15–$30 range under full bank adoption.
The CLARITY Act passed the House in July 2025 by a 294–134 vote and moved through the Senate Agriculture Committee on January 29. However, the Senate Banking Committee has yet to schedule a new markup since January, and negotiators have not published a reconciled draft that satisfies both crypto and banking stakeholders.
However, on Wednesday, pro-crypto Senator Cynthia Lummis indicated renewed momentum when she said that the Banking Committee plans to mark up the bill in April, following the Easter recess.
Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com