NEW YORK, Feb 18, 2026, 16:29 EST — After-hours
- XRP dropped roughly 4% over the last 24 hours, lagging a wider downturn across crypto markets.
- Fed minutes revealed policymakers were divided on where rates should go next, a signal that left investors hesitant to take on more risk.
- According to XRP Ledger documents, a “PermissionedDEX” upgrade targeting vetted trading venues is now up for voting.
XRP slipped roughly 4% to $1.42 on Wednesday, deepening losses for big-name digital assets. Traders digested new cues from the U.S. Federal Reserve, plus a protocol update happening within the XRP ecosystem.
XRP’s status as a high-beta risk play is front and center now, with rate expectations swinging sharply. Shifts in where investors see borrowing costs going tend to hit the speculative names first—and XRP’s been right in the crosshairs.
The Fed’s January meeting minutes revealed almost everyone on the committee backed holding rates steady, but the conversation had a clear hawkish tilt. “Several” officials said they’d be willing to raise rates again if inflation doesn’t cool. That message has dampened hopes for the kind of crypto rebound traders were betting on after last week’s softer U.S. inflation data. Reuters
Bitcoin slipped roughly 2.4% over the last 24 hours, trading at about $66,173, according to CoinMarketCap. Ether dropped too, down 2.8% to near $1,938.
Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee, a day before, leaned dovish—he floated “several more” cuts this year, if inflation allows. Yet the minutes made it clear: nothing is nailed down. Crypto, for its part, has been moving as if another rates shock is out of the question. Reuters
XRP Ledger’s docs reveal that a proposed “PermissionedDEX” upgrade is up for mainnet voting, aiming to introduce gated, invite-only exchanges to the XRPL—pending validator approval. Activating new XRPL amendments still requires that persistent supermajority. XRP Ledger
A permissioned DEX, or decentralized exchange, operates on-chain but limits access to users cleared by an allow-list. According to XRPL documentation, this setup is intended to give regulated firms a way to trade among vetted counterparties, sidestepping the open XRPL order books.
Regulators remain close to the action. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission faces a Feb. 26 deadline for NYSE Arca’s push to list and trade the T. Rowe Price Active Crypto ETF, which would let investors access a basket of crypto assets. That’s according to the agency’s published timeline in the ongoing proceeding.
XRP bulls still face real headwinds. A hawkish rates outlook can lift yields and sap liquidity from speculative names, while the XRPL’s voting could grind to a halt if validator backing fades. And if the SEC decides to delay or deny, the ETF story propping up crypto bids lately might lose steam fast.
Friday brings the U.S. personal consumption expenditures price index, the inflation measure the Fed pays closest attention to, set for release Feb. 20. Also on the horizon is the Feb. 26 SEC decision deadline for the T. Rowe Price crypto ETF proposal.
