XRP bleeds 5.5% as Senate hits snooze on Clarity Act, Bitcoin naps at $64K 🫠

The U.S. Senate left Washington for its August recess without taking up the Crypto Clarity Act, pushing the market-structure vote to September and leaving XRP as the week's biggest loser among major tokens. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said lawmakers would return on Sept. 14 with three weeks to work through a backlog that also includes government funding and a Russia sanctions bill. The bill, which would assign U.S. regulators to oversee digital assets, requires 60 votes, and it remains unclear whether it currently has 50, with several Republican senators publicly opposed and Democrats seeking stricter rules to prevent President Donald Trump from profiting from crypto while in office. Trump disclosed more than $1 billion in income from his crypto ventures in 2025.

XRP, the Ripple-linked token, fell 2.05% on the day to $1.028 and dropped 5.5% over seven days, the steepest decline among major cryptocurrencies. The Clarity Act would, in draft form, reclassify XRP alongside Solana and Dogecoin as non-securities, placing them under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission rather than the Securities and Exchange Commission. Ripple agreed to pay $50 million to settle its cross-appeal with the SEC, but a statute would resolve the question for every exchange, custodian and regulator at once.

Bitcoin ($BTC) held near $64,300 on Friday, flat on the day and flat on the week, after spot bitcoin funds took in about $626 million between Aug. 3 and Aug. 5, enough to defend the $63,000 to $64,000 support zone but not enough to break resistance between $66,000 and $66,600. Ether ($ETH) was flat at $1,897, down marginally over seven days. Solana fell over 1% to nearly $73, down almost 2% on the week. Dogecoin slipped almost 1% to under 7 cents. BNB held at $591, up 1% on the week. Hyperliquid's HYPE eased under 1% to nearly $56 but led the majors over seven days at 1.3%.

Technical indicators on XRP show a 50-day exponential moving average that has crossed below the 200-day EMA in a death cross, with price trading below both averages. The Relative Strength Index reads 35.9, and the Average Directional Index sits at 11.9, signaling weak trend conviction. The next U.S. employment report and July inflation data could shape expectations for the Federal Reserve, which held rates at 3.50% to 3.75% in July with three officials voting to raise them.