XRP Price Crashes 9% as CLARITY Act Dies: How Low Can XRP Go?

$XRP is having the kind of day that makes traders close the app and go for a walk. Ripple's token has slid below $1.30 and is down roughly 8% to 9% over 24 hours, the worst performance in the entire top ten. Bitcoin lost about 1.4% in the same window. Ethereum lost around 3%. XRP lost six times what Bitcoin did.

That gap is the whole story. This was not a crypto-wide flush that happened to catch XRP. This was a regulatory event, and XRP was standing closest to the blast radius.

Why Did the XRP Price Crash Today?

Two things hit within 24 hours of each other, and both of them are American.

XRP USD chart

The first was Tuesday's Senate vote on the CLARITY Act. The second is the Federal Reserve, which announces its rate decision this afternoon with a hike widely expected. $XRP is unusually sensitive to both, and it got them back to back.

The mechanical damage came from leverage. Crypto exchanges liquidated roughly $5...