XRP Slides Under 1.30 USD as Royal Kane Calls 81 Billion USD Market Cap a Dealbreaker

XRP has slipped below the closely watched 1.30 USD level after shedding 7.3% in a single session, and one high-profile investor says the token’s 81 billion USD market capitalization is exactly why he refuses to buy it.

Dubai-based crypto investor Royal Kane wrote on X that he would not invest in XRP at its current valuation, arguing that the sheer size of the token’s market cap leaves little room for the outsized percentage gains that draw traders to smaller assets. “I would never invest in Ripple at this stage because its market cap is already too large,” Kane said, pointing to assets with lower valuations and stronger narratives as the places where real returns are found.

XRP gives back 23% from its recent peak

The selling pressure has erased most of XRP’s latest rebound. The token traded near 1.68 USD earlier in September and has since fallen to roughly 1.30 USD — a decline of about 23% in a matter of weeks.

The pullback follows what had been a strong August. XRP climbed from around 1 USD to a monthly high near 1.70 USD, gaining 28.5% for the month even after Ripple released 1 billion tokens from escrow on Sep. 1, a tranche valued at roughly 1.38 billion USD at the time. Ripple historically returns a large portion of each monthly escrow release, limiting how much actually enters circulation.

Institutional flows also supported the summer rally. U.S. spot XRP exchange-traded funds attracted 153.55 million USD in August, including 150.28 million USD over the final two weeks of the month, while XRP Ledger payment volume surged 521% in one week — growth driven by larger transfer sizes rather than a higher transaction count.

Market data cited at the time of Kane’s comments placed XRP near 1.30 USD with a market capitalization of about 81.68 billion USD and 24-hour trading volume of 4.12 billion USD. The token is down 29.18% since the start of 2026.

Kane’s argument: market cap limits upside

At the core of Kane’s position is a straightforward piece of math. An 81 billion USD asset needs enormous new capital inflows to double, while a smaller token with a compelling story can move dramatically on modest demand. He cited Solana’s early “Ethereum killer” narrative, the community-driven rise of Pepe, and Zcash’s privacy adoption case as examples of narratives that attracted traders before valuations ballooned.

Rather than offering a price target for XRP, Kane told followers to “find a coin with a compelling narrative for the coming years.”

His criticism also included the claim that Ripple has “no products or revenue whatsoever.” That assertion is contested. Ripple is privately held and does not publish quarterly financial statements, but the company publicly operates Ripple Payments, the RLUSD stablecoin, and Ripple Prime, the institutional brokerage built on its acquisition of Hidden Road. It has also announced custody and treasury services for corporate clients.

There is an important distinction investors should understand: buying XRP does not provide equity in Ripple, a claim on its revenue, or voting rights over its business. XRP is the native asset of the XRP Ledger, while Ripple is a private technology company that holds a substantial quantity of the token and builds services that can use the network.

Fed rate hike adds macro pressure

Macro conditions have compounded XRP’s troubles. On Sep. 16, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate by 25 basis points to a target range of 3.75% to 4% — the first U.S. rate increase since 2023, approved unanimously. Projections released with the decision showed 12 of 18 officials expect further increases this year.

Higher rates raise yields on U.S. government debt and money-market products, giving investors safer alternatives to speculative assets. The decision was well-telegraphed: annual inflation hit 3.4% in August, with consumer prices up 0.4% month-over-month and core prices up 0.3%, exceeding estimates, and prediction markets had priced an 81% probability of the hike beforehand.

CLARITY Act failure leaves regulatory limbo

Regulatory hopes also took a hit. On Sep. 15, the U.S. Senate rejected cloture on the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act by a 49-50 vote, 11 votes short of the 60 needed to open debate. The bill mattered particularly for XRP because it would have divided oversight between the SEC and CFTC and, under a revised 635-page draft circulated before the vote, could have treated XRP as a digital commodity in secondary-market transactions.

XRP still benefits from Judge Analisa Torres’s 2023 ruling that Ripple’s programmatic exchange sales of XRP did not constitute securities transactions, though the same ruling found its direct institutional sales violated securities law.

Seven Senate Democrats have since reopened CLARITY Act talks, calling the failed vote “not the end” of the effort — but any revival needs at least 11 more votes.

For now, XRP trades near 1.30 USD with Bitcoin around 76,500 USD and Ethereum near 2,463 USD, and the debate Kane reignited — whether a top-10 asset can still deliver life-changing returns — remains the question every altcoin buyer must answer.