XRP gained 37% in August 2026, its strongest month of the year and the third-best August in the token's history. The rally coincided with the strongest weekly ETF inflows of 2026 and a network upgrade that could activate Sept. 11 if validator support holds.
XRP gained roughly 37% in August 2026, making it the token's strongest month of the year and the third-best August on record, trailing only 2021 and 2017. The token fell 6.8% in the first two weeks of the month, touching a yearly low of $0.9874 on Aug. 15, before reversing on Aug. 18 as a U.S. Treasury bond buyback announcement, a White House crypto policy summit attended by Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, and heavy whale outflows from Binance drove the price up.
ETF investors bought into weakness
Spot XRP ETFs pulled in $110.49 million during the week ending Aug. 28, their strongest weekly haul of 2026, pushing cumulative net inflows past $1.66 billion. Yet XRP traded near $1.38 as of Aug. 29, down 2.3% over 24 hours and 7.8% for the week — investors were buying into a falling price rather than chasing the move. Bitwise's XRP ETF led the activity with $125 million in single-day trading volume on Aug. 20, beating its prior record by 42%.
A network upgrade lands Sept. 11
The fixCleanup3_3_0 amendment, which patches bugs in Single Asset Vaults, the Lending Protocol, and Automated Market Makers, reached 82.86% validator consensus with 29 of 35 trusted validators voting yes, clearing the way for activation on mainnet on Sept. 11 if the majority holds. Separately, RLUSD, Ripple's regulated stablecoin, crossed $1 billion in circulating supply on the XRP Ledger on Aug. 28, accounting for 82% of all XRPL stablecoin activity.
Fee revenue tells a weaker story
Despite settling $159.9 billion in H1 2026, the XRP Ledger generated just $1.18 million in fees, an 81.6% decline from H1 2025. XRP also faces 5.5% annual supply dilution from Ripple's monthly escrow releases; on Aug. 1, Ripple unlocked 1 billion XRP from escrow, valued at approximately $1.08 billion. Aggregate XRP futures open interest reached $3.44 billion in August, up 42.6% over 30 days, leaving leveraged positions exposed if the amendment loses validator support or sentiment turns.
Source: crypto.news
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