XRP pierced $2.03 (+8%) on Saturday, reclaiming levels unseen since mid-December 2025. The catalyst is definitive: SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw has officially vacated her seat, leaving the agency with a clear 3-0 Republican majority under Chair Paul Atkins.
The market reaction was immediate and violent. Volume on Kraken surged as traders priced in the end of the agency’s divided stance on digital assets. Crenshaw, a consistent dissenter against crypto-friendly policies, confirmed her departure in an official statement Friday, citing her term’s conclusion. Her exit removes the final internal obstacle to the new administration’s deregulatory agenda, effectively dismantling the “regulation by enforcement” era.
The exit leaves the SEC with three Republican commissioners, shifting the agency’s internal balance at a time when crypto oversight is already undergoing visible changes. FinanceFeeds
Institutional Capital Front-Ran the News
Smart money anticipated the shift. U.S. spot XRP ETFs have now recorded 29 consecutive days of net inflows, absorbing $1.18 billion since late November. The buying streak has notably decoupled XRP from the broader market; while XRP funds added capital, spot Bitcoin ETFs bled over $1.1 billion in December alone.
The divergence suggests a rotation into assets with high regulatory beta. With the SEC now unified under Atkins, Uyeda, and Peirce, the market is betting on the swift dismissal of lingering enforcement actions and a potential green light for advanced DeFi integrations on the XRP Ledger.
