XRP’s 50% weekly surge: the biggest rally since the SEC settlement and what is driving it

XRP gained more than 50% in five trading days, its strongest weekly performance in 21 months, as a Treasury buyback expansion, a White House crypto summit, and aggressive whale accumulation converged on the same narrow window. Summary XRP surged from approximately $1.00 on Aug. 18 to a high of $1.6963 on Aug. 22, 2026, a gain of roughly 56% that marks its biggest weekly move since November 2024. The U.S. Treasury doubled long-term bond buyback operations from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per session, triggering a rapid drop in benchmark yields and pushing capital into risk assets across crypto markets. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse attended a White House crypto policy summit on Aug. 19 alongside SEC Chairman Paul Atkins, advancing the CLARITY Act that would classify XRP as a digital commodity under CFTC oversight. Whale addresses holding between 1 million and 10 million XRP accumulated approximately 380 million tokens in one week, pushing tracked holdings from 16.05 billion to 16.36 billion XRP while exchange outflows exceeded 240 million tokens since summer began. Spot XRP ETFs attracted $39.78 million in net inflows for the week ending Aug. 22, bringing cumulative inflows sin...