“Ripple’s foundational digital asset infrastructure across payments, crypto custody and stablecoin, as well as the use of XRP, will complement the services offered within Ripple Prime. Ripple Prime will look to leverage blockchain capabilities in its business to streamline operations and optimize costs.”
The completion of the Hidden Road deal is expected to further legitimize XRP, given its expected utilization.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse highlighted Ripple’s recent deals and underscored XRP’s central role, stating:
“With today’s close of Hidden Road (now Ripple Prime), Ripple has announced 5 major acquisitions in ~2 years (GTreasury last week, Rail in August, Standard Custody in 2024, Metaco in 2023). As we continue to build solutions towards enabling an Internet of Value – I’m reminding you all that XRP sits at the center of everything Ripple does. Lock in.”
Ripple President Monica Long echoed Brad Garlinghouse’s comments, saying that Ripple Prime will look to utilize XRP in multiple ways.
The resolution of the SEC vs. Ripple case has been pivotal, allowing Ripple to expand into Main Street, spotlighting XRP. While XRP has soared 130% since SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s resignation, the token has dropped 18% since the US Court of Appeals approved Ripple and the SEC’s appeal withdrawals.
However, XRP could potentially reverse the losses given the token’s utility outlook, which could align with the eventual launch of XRP-spot ETFs once approvals resume. The US government shutdown entered day 25, on Saturday, October 25, with no resolution in sight. The shutdown leaves the SEC with a skeleton staff, delaying reviews and approvals, including those for crypto-spot ETFs.
Importantly, six of the seven XRP-spot ETF final decision deadlines have passed because of the shutdown. 21Shares, Bitwise, Canary Capital, CoinShares, Grayscale, and WisdomTree had deadlines ranging from October 18 to October 25.
The absence of sticky institutional money has left the token with heavy losses in October compared to Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). BTC-spot and ETH-spot ETF inflows sent BTC to an all-time high of $125,761 and ETH to a record high of $4,958, underscoring the influence of institutional demand on price trends. XRP is down 10.7% in October, while BTC and ETH have posted more modest losses of 2.67% and 5.15%, respectively.
For context, BTC-spot ETFs have reported total net inflows of $26.6 billion year-to-date, potentially surpassing $37.8 billion in calendar year 2024.
XRP rallied 4.84% on Friday, October 24, reversing the previous day’s 1.22% loss to close at $2.5108. The token outperformed the broader crypto market, which rose 1.09%. Despite Friday’s rally, XRP remained below the 50-day and 200-day Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs), reaffirming a bearish bias.
