Points of Focus

• XRP is at $1.35 as “fixCleanup3_1_3” activates May 27 with a rare default-Yes vote, patching critical XRPL bugs.
• Santiment’s 1.1:1 bullish:bearish ratio on May 25 is the highest XRP fear reading in three weeks.
• All 12 MAs signal sell; ADX at 14.97 confirms no trend conviction behind the decline.

XRP (XRP) is trading at $1.36 on May 26, down 2% in the last seven days, holding onto the dotted horizontal support that has defined its range since March, according to CoinGecko data.

The session landed one day before the “fixCleanup3_1_3” amendment activates on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) mainnet, the most significant protocol maintenance event of 2026 for the XRPL infrastructure on which Ripple’s cross-border payment pilots, tokenized real-world asset deployments, and native decentralized finance protocols all run.

The fixCleanup amendment

The XRP Ledger version 3.1.3 release introduced the “fixCleanup3_1_3” amendment with an unusual designation: Its default vote is set to Yes. Under the XRPL amendment process, new protocol changes normally require validators to vote in favor actively. A default-Yes setting means the Ripple engineering team considers the fixes sufficiently critical that every validator running 3.1.3 or later automatically supports activation unless they explicitly override.

The amendment bundles fixes across four areas:

• Non-fungible token (NFT) bugs in the XLS-20 implementation
• Edge cases in permissioned domains credential-gating
• Two Vault bugs (trustline limit checks for share-denominated withdrawals and VaultClawback clamping to available assets)
• Lending Protocol fixes include a LoanPay funds-conservation assertion, vault invariant rounding, and stopping transaction processing if deletion of expired credentials fails.

The vault and lending protocol fixes carry direct commercial relevance. XRPL’s lending markets crossed $4 billion in total deposits earlier in May. A LoanPay conservation assertion error at scale is not a theoretical risk when the protocol processes billions in lending transactions. The amendment removes that risk category before it can compound as lending volume grows.

The MVRV and social sentiment picture

Santiment Intelligence recorded 4,300 new XRP wallets on May 20, the fourth largest network growth spike of 2026, with daily active addresses rising to 43,520 from 32,000. Santiment analyst Brian Quinlivan’s livestream added the deeper onchain layer.

📈 $XRP has had 4,300 new wallets created in 24 hours, the 4th largest spike of 2026. Network growth is among the top leading signals to identify reversals.

🔗 Check out XRP’s network growth and level of address activity any time with this handy chart: https://t.co/8jwj1uvJta pic.twitter.com/Fbo1WRKEN8

— Santiment Intelligence (@SantimentData) May 21, 2026

XRP’s 365-day market value to realized value (MVRV) ratio was -35.12%, indicating that the average XRP holder who bought in the past year is carrying an unrealized loss of roughly 35% relative to their cost basis. XRP’s 30-day MVRV had slipped back into negative territory at -3%. In Santiment’s framework, deeply negative MVRV readings across both timeframes typically correspond to lower-risk accumulation zones, where the distribution of losses suppresses further panic selling.

By May 25, social sentiment had deteriorated further. Santiment reported that XRP’s crowd sentiment had swung sharply negative, with the ratio of positive to negative commentary dropping to just 1.1 bullish comments for every one bearish comment, the highest fear reading in three weeks.

📉 XRP’s crowd sentiment has swung sharply negative again, with the ratio of positive to negative commentary dropping to just 1.1 bullish comments for every 1 bearish comment. Historically, this kind of fear and skepticism has often acted as a contrarian signal for XRP’s price.… pic.twitter.com/KGubO783yE

— Santiment Intelligence (@SantimentData) May 25, 2026

Santiment’s chart shows the positive/negative ratio sitting inside the FUD Zone, below the threshold Santiment uses to identify crowd fear, with the May 25 annotation reading: “Typically Good Dip Buy Time.”

Santiment’s framework: When the positive-to-negative sentiment ratio drops deep into the FUD Zone, weak hands have already sold, reducing selling pressure and creating conditions for a rebound. The opposite condition, the FOMO Zone, is when traders aggressively buy out of fear of missing out, which has historically coincided with local tops. At 1.1:1, XRP sits at the bearish extreme of its recent sentiment range.

Fresh wallet creation, maximum crowd fear, and no directional conviction in the technical indicator panel — the setup Santiment identifies as preceding price stabilization or bounces, not extensions of declines.

The legislative and macro backdrop

The US CLARITY Act missed the Memorial Day Senate floor vote deadline. The next legislative window for a full Senate vote opens in June-August 2026, with the White House targeting a July 4 signing. The bill still needs 60 votes to overcome a filibuster, an Agriculture Committee merger, and resolution of the ethics provision on President Donald Trump’s crypto holdings before it reaches the floor.

Spot XRP exchange-traded funds (ETFs) continued to attract capital even as the first vote deadline passed. The week of May 22, XRP ETFs drew $22.04 million in net inflows, while spot Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) ETFs recorded outflows, per SoSoValue data. Cumulative XRP ETF inflows stand at $1.41 billion, confirming sustained institutional demand at current price levels.

Technical levels

Charts and technical data from TradingView show the full cycle from October 2024 through May 2026. XRP launched from $0.60 in November 2024, peaked near $3.84 in August 2025, and traced a sustained decline to the February 2026 trough of $1.19. The recovery from $1.19 stalled at $1.60 amid CLARITY Act optimism, and the current price is consolidating on the dotted horizontal support at $1.33-$1.38, which has held across six tests since March.

Both the exponential moving average (EMA) and the simple moving average (SMA) on the panel signal sell. EMA10 at $1.3663, SMA10 at $1.3628, EMA20 at $1.3830, SMA20 at $1.3999, EMA30 at $1.3896, SMA30 at $1.3971, EMA50 at $1.3992, SMA50 at $1.3984, EMA100 at $1.4686, SMA100 at $1.3943, EMA200 at $1.6720, SMA200 at $1.6739: all 12 overhead. Hull moving average at $1.3447 is the sole buy signal.

The average directional index (ADX) at 14.97 is the most important reading in the panel. Below 15, directional trend readings lose statistical significance. The current decline is not a trending breakdown; it is a directionless compression. In Santiment’s framing, directionless price action with negative MVRV readings and below-baseline social sentiment is when accumulation occurs before reversals.

The relative strength index (RSI) at 42.37 is below 50 but not oversold. Stochastic %K at 19.39 approaches the buy zone. Stochastic RSI Fast at 15.97 and Momentum at -0.0612 both signal buy. The moving average convergence/divergence (MACD) at -0.0167 and Awesome Oscillator at -0.0556 remain sell signals. The Ichimoku Base Line at $1.4253 is neutral.

• Resistance: EMA10 ($1.3663), SMA10 ($1.3628), EMA20 ($1.3830), SMA20 ($1.3999), $1.40 round number, Ichimoku Base Line ($1.4253).
• Support: Hull MA ($1.3447), $1.33-$1.35 dotted chart floor, $1.28-$1.30 next structural zone.

What comes next

The fixCleanup amendment activates on May 27, 2026, removing protocol-level risks from the XRPL’s NFT, vault, and lending infrastructure.

The CLARITY Act Senate floor vote opens as the earliest legislative catalyst in June. ADX at 14.97 says the current price level is not the beginning of a breakdown.

Santiment’s 365-day MVRV at -35.12% says it is not a comfortable hold either. The fixCleanup upgrade activation and the June-August CLARITY Act window are the two dated events that bookend the next phase.