NEW YORK, March 5, 2026, 12:57 EST — Regular session
- XRP falls about 2% near $1.40 after a 5% jump on Wednesday
- A U.S. crypto market-structure bill stalls again as banks push back on stablecoin rewards
- Ripple touts payments-platform expansion as traders look to Friday’s U.S. jobs data
XRP fell about 2% to around $1.40 on Thursday, drifting toward the bottom of its day’s range as traders cut risk across crypto. The token rose 5.2% a day earlier. 1
The move came as talks on the U.S. Clarity Act — a bill meant to set a federal rulebook for crypto firms — hit another impasse after banks balked at a White House compromise on rewards tied to stablecoins, tokens typically pegged to the dollar. Trump attacked lenders in a Truth Social post: “We are not going to allow them to undermine our powerful Crypto Agenda,” while Brian Gardner, Stifel’s chief Washington strategist, warned: “The calendar is becoming the enemy of this bill.” 2
Why it matters now is simple: a lot of the crypto trade is policy risk in disguise. When the rulebook looks closer, investors tend to lean in; when it slips, they step back fast, especially in tokens like XRP that still live and die by regulatory mood swings.
Risk appetite also took a hit as the dollar climbed on intensifying fighting involving Iran and investors sold government bonds, pushing yields higher. “Traditional safe havens, such as gold, are not playing their usual part,” said Rabobank strategist Bas van Geffen, as bitcoin and ether also slipped. 3
Not all the news was defensive. Kraken’s banking arm secured a limited-purpose master account with the Federal Reserve, giving it direct access to core payment rails such as Fedwire. “This milestone marks the convergence of crypto infrastructure and sovereign financial rails,” said Arjun Sethi, a co-CEO at Kraken parent Payward. 4
Ripple, which uses XRP on its ledger for some payment flows, announced a major expansion of its Ripple Payments product this week, adding managed custody and collections through virtual accounts and saying the platform has processed more than $100 billion in volume. “Fintechs and financial institutions need infrastructure that treats digital assets with the same rigor as traditional finance,” said Monica Long, Ripple’s president. 5
That leaves XRP caught between two stories that don’t always line up: companies pushing deeper into payments plumbing, and lawmakers still arguing about who gets to pay what kind of rewards, and when.
But the downside case is there. If the Clarity Act drifts into the summer and war-driven energy shocks keep rate-cut bets under pressure, traders can keep de-risking — and smaller coins usually feel it first.
For now, investors are watching for any sign that Washington talks restart in a way that clears the “rewards” fight without killing the bill. In markets, the bigger swing factor is still rates, and crypto has been trading like it knows it.
The next hard timestamp is Friday: the U.S. Labor Department is scheduled to release February employment data on March 6 at 8:30 a.m. ET, a print that can move the dollar and risk assets in minutes. 6
