XRP Slides Below $1.40 as Smart Money Exits, ETP Inflows Reach $67.6M, Warren Targets Trust Charters

XRP News

Senator Elizabeth Warren has escalated her campaign against the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, arguing that nine national trust bank charters granted to crypto-focused firms, including Ripple, Coinbase, Circle, Paxos, BitGo, Fidelity, Crypto.com, Stripe, and Protego, violate the National Bank Act. In a letter dated May 18 to Comptroller Jonathan Gould, Warren contended these approvals let companies operate as de facto banks while sidestepping core safeguards. She flagged business plans involving non-fiduciary custody, payment facilitation, and stablecoin issuance under the GENIUS Act framework, warning of risks to consumer protection and the wider U.S. banking system from this regulatory pathway.

On the technical front, XRP is hugging the lower boundary of a three-month rising channel after a coordinated exit by informed capital on May 17. The Smart Money Index crossed below its signal line, mirroring a late-April setup that preceded a roughly 7% drawdown. Compounding the weakness, the 20-day exponential moving average is on the verge of closing beneath the 50-day EMA, threatening the first bearish cross in months. With price sitting under 1% above channel support, a confirmed breakdown becomes the path of least resistance unless fresh on-chain demand materially absorbs the supply now being distributed by larger holders.

A confirmed bear pennant breakdown on the three-day chart now projects an aggressive measured-move target near $0.65, roughly 52.5% below current levels. The breakdown took shape after XRP closed below the pennant's lower trendline at $1.40, capping a 12% slide over five sessions. The weekly Stoch RSI has also flashed a deathcross for the third time since the July 2025 all-time high, a signal that previously preceded corrections of about 50%. Buyers are expected to defend $1.27 aggressively, since a confirmed close beneath that floor opens the door to $1.11 and the psychological $1.00 handle next.

Despite the bearish structure, capital flows tell a more nuanced story. Listed investment products tracking XRP attracted $67.6 million in inflows for the week ending May 15, while solana funds drew $55.1 million. The rotation came against a brutal backdrop for the majors, as bitcoin products bled $982 million and ethereum vehicles lost $249 million. The altcoin resilience extended beyond XRP and SOL, with TON, DOGE, and Chainlink products also recording inflows. The data suggests selective institutional positioning is intact even as broader risk appetite contracts, with XRP outperforming ether on a one-week basis.

Macro pressure is also shaping the XRP narrative from an unexpected angle. Japan's 30-year government bond yield punched above 4% in May 2026, the first time since the tenor was created in 1999, while the 10-year sits at multi-decade highs. Japanese investors offloaded nearly $29.6 billion in U.S. Treasuries during the first quarter, the heaviest quarterly sale since 2022, as the Bank of Japan unwinds decades of ultra-loose policy. Analyst Catalina Castro framed XRP as a potential conduit for trapped cross-border liquidity should the yen carry trade fully reverse, pressing U.S. yields, mortgages, and credit conditions higher in a global feedback loop.

Adding to the ecosystem momentum, Flare and D'CENT Wallet rolled out an integration that connects hardware wallets directly to XRP yield vaults using XRP Ledger signatures, without requiring a new chain, wallet, or gas token. Two institutional-grade vaults went live at launch: the Monarq vault, run by a FalconX-majority-owned asset manager, and the earnXRP vault curated by Clearstar. The launch coincided with the debut of the XRP Alliance, a coalition involving Flare, D'CENT, Doppler, Banxa, and Squid, aimed at positioning Flare as a programmable layer for XRP via FAssets and Smart Accounts — appealing to cold wallet users seeking yield without custody compromises.

XRP trades near $1.36 with a 24-hour drop of about 0.44% and a market cap close to $84.3 billion, signaling fragile equilibrium inside a confirmed downtrend. Immediate support sits at $1.3575, with deeper buyer interest expected at $1.3137 and the psychologically charged $1.27 level. Resistance clusters at $1.3888, $1.4240, and $1.4703. The RSI at 41.81 is approaching oversold territory but has not yet capitulated, while the bearish MACD signal aligns with the broader bear market structure and ongoing distribution by whales. A reclaim of $1.4240 on rising candlestick volume would invalidate the breakdown thesis; failure to hold $1.27 unlocks the $1.11 leg lower.