XRP-USD Price Holds Near $2.30 as Ripple XRP ETF Delays and Washington Stalemate Test Market Faith

XRP Holds Near $2.30 as ETF Delays and Washington Gridlock Test Market Nerves

XRP is treading a fine line around $2.30, down about 1.4% today, as investors navigate a volatile mix of politics, regulation, and shifting institutional appetite. The token has lost roughly 17% so far this month, weighed down by delays in U.S. spot ETF approvals and the ripple effect of a government shutdown that’s freezing progress across financial agencies.

Momentum faded quickly after the early-October rally that pushed XRP toward $2.60. The optimism behind that move — anticipation that the SEC would green-light one or more XRP exchange-traded funds — has now turned to frustration. The Senate’s failure to pass a funding bill has effectively paused all regulatory reviews. The longer the stalemate lasts, the slimmer the chance of an ETF decision before the October 18–25 deadline window.

Institutional traders who were positioning ahead of an approval are now scaling back exposure. One major fund manager described the market mood as “a holding pattern built on headlines, not fundamentals.” Still, underlying demand remains solid. Recent data show over 310 million XRP transferred from exchanges to cold storage in the past few weeks, signaling accumulation rather than capitulation.

Ripple’s leadership is trying to steady confidence through corporate expansion. The company’s $1 billion acquisition of GTreasury, announced on October 16, gives Ripple an entry point into the $120 trillion corporate-treasury market. Chief Executive Brad Garlinghouse said the goal is to modernize how CFOs manage cross-border cash and tokenized assets, calling payments “the first and most obvious use case for blockchain.” In parallel, Ripple is raising another $1 billion to seed a new Digital Asset Treasury, designed to hold and deploy XRP as part of long-term liquidity planning. These moves send a clear message: while traders focus on charts, Ripple is positioning for institutional finance.

Technically, the setup remains fragile. XRP is trading below its 20-day and 50-day moving averages, reinforcing a short-term bearish bias. Support lies near $2.20 and again around $1.95, where buyers defended the token in September. A break below that range could expose $1.50, the next Fibonacci retracement level and a potential psychological floor. On the upside, bulls need a decisive close above $2.45–$2.50 to regain control, with a breakout target near $3.00 if ETF momentum revives.

Meanwhile, newly listed XRP-based ETFs are holding steadier than the token itself. BlackRock’s iShares XRPI closed at $13.72, down 1.26%, while REX Osprey XRPR ended at $18.98, off 1.09%. Combined assets across XRP ETFs now exceed $1.9 billion, placing them among the fastest-growing digital-asset products since Ethereum’s ETF debut. More than 60% of daily turnover comes from institutional desks — pensions, hedge funds, and family offices looking for regulated exposure to blockchain payments.

The broader crypto backdrop is equally tense. Bitcoin is struggling to hold above $108,000, and total digital-asset market capitalization has fallen to $3.6 trillion from early-October highs above $4.2 trillion. Renewed trade friction between Washington and Beijing, along with President Trump’s tariff threats, has added pressure to risk assets. Until a funding deal is reached and ETF reviews resume, liquidity in the alt-coin sector will likely remain thin.

Despite the gloom, many analysts view the pullback as a pause rather than a collapse. Historical patterns show that major XRP rallies often follow regulatory milestones, and the first spot ETF approval could be just such a catalyst. If the SEC ultimately clears any of the seven pending filings — from issuers including Grayscale, CoinShares, 21Shares, and WisdomTree — XRP could quickly reclaim the $3 level and extend toward $5 under heavy institutional inflows.

For now, XRP sits at a crossroads between policy paralysis and structural progress. Ripple’s corporate moves suggest confidence in the token’s long-term role, even as traders face another week of uncertainty from Washington. Unless the Senate unlocks a path for the SEC to resume operations soon, XRP may drift inside a volatile corridor between $1.95 and $2.45, waiting for the next decisive headline to set its direction.

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