In This Article Korea's XRP Ripple Premium Is Structural, Not AccidentalWhale Activity and Exchange Outflows Back the Retail StoryXRP Price Context: Recovery in Progress, Global Volume Softer XRP Ripple has reclaimed the top spot on Upbit, South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, with $52.33M in 24-hour trading volume, outpacing Bitcoin at $42.14M and Ethereum at $24.30M on the same venue.
Roughly 10% of Upbit’s entire $493.74M daily crypto exchange volume was in XRP while the two largest coins by global market cap finished second and third.
(SOURCE: CoinGecko)
The gap matters because Bitcoin and Ethereum represent the default institutional benchmarks for crypto demand. When XRP trading volume overtakes both on a major regulated exchange, it is a signal that Korean retail capital is rotating toward the token with intention, not just chasing a news headline.
Even with XRP dominating trading volume in South Korea, the token is trading at $1.13, down -1.4% over the past 24 hours, with overall daily trading volume at just over $1.71Bn.
Korea’s XRP Ripple Premium Is Structural, Not Accidental The current volume snapshot fits a pattern that has been building for years. According to Upbit’s own disclosure, XRP was the exchange’s largest digital asset by cumulative trading volume in 2025, surpassing $1 trillion in trading volume on the platform and exceeding Bitcoin’s total.
Ryan Yoon, an analyst at Tiger Research cited by Investing.com, attributes the sustained dominance to South Korean retail investors, particularly those in their 40s and 50s, rotating capital out of domestic and US equities and back into crypto, with XRP as their primary target.
Earlier this year, XRP trading volume on Upbit surged 289% in a single hour during a momentum window, compared to a 128% increase on Binance over the same period.
The divergence illustrates just how sensitive the Korean crypto market is to XRP price catalysts relative to global venues. PANews reports that approximately 15% of global XRP trading volume now originates from South Korea.
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Whale Activity and Exchange Outflows Back the Retail Story 🚨🚨🚨Something interesting is happening with $XRP liquidity.
Upbit just took the top spot in XRP trading volume, beating Binance, Coinbase, and every other global exchange on the heatmap.
Liquidity is positioning before headlines catch up.
Why is South Korea betting on $XRP? pic.twitter.com/OG61uKXEo1
— X Finance Bull (@Xfinancebull) March 8, 2026
The volume data is one half of the picture. The other is where the coins go after they are traded. In May, an unidentified investor withdrew 6.3 million XRP from Upbit in a single transaction.
Around the same time, on-chain data tracked by CoinGlass showed whale investors, large holders whose moves can shift market structure, pulled $135M worth of XRP off exchanges in a single week.
Exchange outflows, where coins move from trading platforms into private wallets, are a standard on-chain metric (a measure derived directly from blockchain transaction data) interpreted as accumulation rather than selling preparation.
Data from CoinGlass shows net XRP outflows from exchanges totaled $30.38M over the past seven days and $147.50M over the past month.
That combination, high spot trading volume on Upbit alongside sustained net outflows globally, suggests two distinct buyer cohorts: active Korean retail traders on one side and longer-horizon accumulators on the other.
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XRP Price Context: Recovery in Progress, Global Volume Softer The "3rd Retest" would be a gift 🎁 $XRP https://t.co/VaSUr4R1OR pic.twitter.com/kRbJ4Sc36Z
— 🇬🇧 ChartNerd 📊 (@ChartNerdTA) July 6, 2026
On the XRP Ripple price, the token bottomed at $1.01 during last month’s broader market selloff before recovering to approximately $1.14, a 12.87% rebound. Over the past week, it is up +8%, with a -1.4% loss in the most recent 24-hour window. XRP’s current market capitalization is roughly $77Bn, ranking it sixth among cryptocurrencies globally.
One counterpoint worth flagging: global XRP trading volume over the same 24-hour period fell 31% to approximately $1.21Bn. The strength on Upbit is therefore a Korean-specific phenomenon running against a softer global backdrop, not a uniform global surge.
That divergence reinforces the argument that domestic Korean crypto market dynamics, retail rotation, KRW liquidity depth, and Ripple’s longstanding relationships with Korean remittance providers are doing the heavy lifting.
Institutional demand is also building alongside the retail story. XRP-linked ETFs have attracted over $1.21Bn in cumulative inflows globally, according to data cited by TradingView, while Bitcoin and Ether spot ETFs recorded net outflows over the same period.
That institutional channel may eventually decouple XRP’s Korean spot activity from pure retail sentiment and anchor it to a broader demand base.
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EX DeFi is gaining attention as an AI-powered cloud mining platform, offering users access to BTC, DOGE, and LTC mining without owning hardware.
Summary
EX DeFi launched a cloud mining platform with AI-powered infrastructure and free computing power for new users. It has expanded its cloud mining services, highlighting AI optimization, security features, and multi-asset support. The platform has introduced AI-driven cloud mining services for BTC, DOGE, LTC, and other major digital assets. As we enter 2026, mainstream digital assets such as Bitcoin (BTC), Dogecoin (DOGE), and Litecoin (LTC) continue to attract widespread attention from global investors. For many newcomers to cryptocurrencies, how to participate in the digital asset market with a lower barrier to entry and explore long-term profit opportunities has become a key focus. Therefore, free cloud mining platforms are gaining popularity.
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Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson said the enthusiasm surrounding XRP stems from a structural dynamic he calls Web 2.5, where a centralised company continuously builds real-world value around its native blockchain, creating a self-reinforcing cycle that retail and institutional markets reward.
Speaking in a wide-ranging discussion, Hoskinson described the pattern plainly. Ripple acquires a prime broker, closes a partnership, secures a licence, and each move adds to the value proposition of the XRP Ledger. The company and the token are linked, and the market prices in every step forward.
“Brad and the other gang, they just bought a prime broker and they just did this,” Hoskinson said. “Well, that’s a centralised company, right? But they know that that company’s going to use the XRP Ledger and so they’re going to kind of create this virtuous cycle here. The efforts of one actor is kind of driving the value proposition of the thing.”
Also Read :Ripple (XRP) Price Prediction 2026, 2027-2030: Will XRP Reach $5?
A Model He Once ResistedHoskinson placed XRP alongside Tether, Circle, BNB, and Canton as examples of what he calls Web 2.5, hybrid structures that combine regulated corporate entities with blockchain infrastructure underneath. He acknowledged he spent years pushing back against this model before concluding the market had settled the argument.
“There’s nothing wrong with it. I’ve been fighting it. I mean, I’ve thrown in that towel a long time ago,” he said. “If you look at CoinMarketCap, XRP, BNB, Circle, Tether, look at where they sit. That’s where all the growth is right now.”
The Web 2.5 category, in his framing, functions like a club. A central entity builds the infrastructure, attracts institutional participation, and drives network effects. Users and capital follow.
Also Read : Is XRP Really ‘Nothing’? Exclusive: What Hayes and Hoskinson Are Missing About Ripple
Where the Growth Goes NextHoskinson said the Web 2.5 boom will not stay contained to those platforms. As these hybrid networks bring billions of users into crypto, he expects activity to migrate into true Web 3 markets if cross-chain bridging infrastructure develops properly. Projects focused on interoperability and privacy, he argued, stand to capture that overflow.
For XRP specifically, the implication is that its position at the front of the institutional adoption wave, backed by Ripple’s regulatory wins and acquisition strategy, gives it structural advantages that pure decentralised protocols currently lack.
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Stablecoin issuer Tether has announced a $20 million investment in Mercado Bitcoin, one of Latin America’s largest digital asset exchanges and on-chain financial platforms.
The financing round is meant to speed up the expansion of Mercado Bitcoin’s blockchain-based infrastructure across tokenization, digital payments, and credit markets in Brazil and the broader region.
Notably, Mercado Bitcoin is a key regional partner for San Francisco-headquartered enterprise blockchain firm Ripple. The two firms previously partnered to deploy Ripple Payments to facilitate cross-border treasury operations between Brazil and Portugal.
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Additionally, Ripple has supported Mercado Bitcoin's massive tokenization efforts, which included a recent initiative to bring over $200 million in permissioned real-world assets (RWAs) onto the XRP Ledger (XRPL).
With Tether now joining as a strategic investor, Mercado Bitcoin plans to use the $20 million to further build upon this regulated foundation.
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The exchange, which was founded in 2013, has become a full-stack financial services platform.
It currently serves roughly 4.5 million users and holds over ten licenses across Brazil and Europe, including a Payment Institution license from the Central Bank of Brazil.
According to the announcement, the new capital will be allocated to scaling Mercado Bitcoin's tokenized investment offerings.
The funds will also support the expansion of its stablecoin-powered payment rails, the growth of its lending and credit capabilities, and its ongoing international expansion efforts.
Tether's growing footprint in Brazil Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino noted that the investment aligns with the stablecoin issuer's broader corporate strategy.
Tether aims to support companies building practical infrastructure for mainstream, real-world utility in high-growth markets like Brazil.
Recently, the Tether-backed payments application Oobit integrated Pix, Brazil’s ubiquitous instant payment network created by the central bank. This massive integration makes it possible for the network's 170 million users to seamlessly deposit Brazilian reais.
XRP rival Stellar (XLM) has continued to thrive across both the crypto and the real-world asset ecosystem, hitting new milestones as adoption continues to grow.
According to recent data shared by the RWA Foundation earlier today, Stellar has surpassed $3 billion in on-chain real-world assets (RWAs) as its utility continues to expand.
Stellar hits new milestone With Stellar crossing $3 billion in its on-chain RWAs, the network has reached a new milestone as institutional adoption of tokenized assets continues to surge on the blockchain.
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The source further confirmed that the $3 billion milestone includes both the distributed and represented value, signaling a rapid surge in the amount of real-world financial assets being tokenized on the Stellar blockchain.
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Similar to the XRP network, Stellar has continued to focus on supporting seamless payments, asset issuance, and tokenization, making it a preferred hub for financial institutions seeking to bring traditional assets on-chain.
Stellar flips Ethereum and SolanaIn addition to the $3 billion milestone, Stellar has also emerged as the largest network for tokenized active investment strategies by distributed value.
More recent data showed that Stellar accounts for $620 million in distributed active strategies, a value that is far ahead of competing blockchain networks like Ethereum.
Next to Stellar, Ethereum ranked second with $342.9 million in total value distributed, followed by Mantle at $113 million, and Avalanche at $108.6 million.
The list continues as Polygon ranks fifth at $82.3 million, Arbitrum at $70.8 million, Monad at $61.3 million, Base at $40.4 million, Plume Network at $36.9 million, and Solana at $26.7 million.
The total value of real world assets (RWAs) tokenized on the Stellar network has surpassed 3 billion dollars, according to the latest figures released by the RWA Foundation. This new milestone not only highlights the rising institutional interest but also points to increased on-chain adoption of the Stellar blockchain in bringing traditional assets to digital platforms.
A new threshold in institutional adoptionCrossing the 3 billion dollar threshold marks one of Stellar’s most significant breakthroughs to date. Data shows that this figure covers both the value of assets actively distributed on-chain and those represented digitally. The surge reflects a sharp acceleration in the tokenization of traditional financial products on Stellar, reinforcing the platform’s appeal as a blockchain of choice for major players seeking to digitize real-world assets.
Stellar, often compared to XRP Ledger, has carved out a strategic position by focusing on payment infrastructure, asset issuance, and tokenization. This technical direction has made Stellar a favored network for financial institutions aiming to bridge conventional assets with blockchain innovations. The growth is further supported by the Stellar Development Foundation, a nonprofit committed to advancing the platform’s capabilities globally.
Data from the RWA Foundation revealed that the value of on-chain real world assets on the Stellar network has breached the 3 billion dollar mark, representing a pivotal moment in the ecosystem’s evolution.
Rising to the top in tokenized investment strategiesStellar’s boom isn’t limited to overall RWA value. The network now holds the top spot in the category of value distributed in tokenized active investment strategies, reaching 620 million dollars. This reflects not only asset representation but a growing adoption of digital investment vehicles on the Stellar blockchain.
Setting itself apart from the competition, Stellar’s distributed value in this space outpaces leading rivals. Ethereum, for instance, claims second place with 342.9 million dollars, while Mantle and Avalanche lag behind at 113 million and 108.6 million dollars, respectively. These figures underscore Stellar’s growing clout among both institutional and retail investors seeking blockchain-based investment products.
NetworkDistributed ValueStellar620 million dollarsEthereum342.9 million dollarsMantle113 million dollarsAvalanche108.6 million dollarsStellar pulls ahead of Ethereum and SolanaThe ranking continues with Polygon at 82.3 million dollars, Arbitrum at 70.8 million, Monad at 61.3 million, Base at 40.4 million, and Plume Network at 36.9 million dollars. Solana trails with only 26.7 million dollars in distributed value, occupying a lower position on the list.
This landscape reveals that Stellar has overtaken even larger ecosystems like Ethereum and Solana specifically within the sphere of tokenized investment products. The platform’s recent gains signal a changing dynamic in the pursuit to bring real world assets into the blockchain space, intensifying the competition among major networks.
Stellar has surged ahead of rival networks in tokenized active investment strategies, boasting a distributed value of 620 million dollars.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
The crypto market may be sitting on a fragile foundation. According to a recent market health assessment from the CEO of Alphractal, unliquidated long positions have piled up across Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and Solana, creating conditions where even a modest pullback could trigger a broader wave of selling.
The concern isn’t that prices have already collapsed. It’s that leveraged traders continue betting on higher prices while the market has produced only a weak advance. That imbalance, if left unresolved, could become the catalyst for a much sharper move lower.
Long Positions Continue To Stack UpLeverage has been doing most of the heavy lifting lately. The diagnosis suggests that BTC, ETH, XRP, and SOL now carry a significant buildup of long positions accumulated over the past month. These trades all depend on continued upside momentum, but without a strong breakout, they become increasingly vulnerable.
When too many traders are positioned on the same side of the market, price weakness can quickly turn into forced liquidations.
Domino Effect Could Hit Multiple AssetsThe warning extends beyond a single cryptocurrency. If a meaningful pullback begins, the analyst believes liquidations could spread rapidly across both derivatives and spot markets, amplifying selling pressure through a chain reaction. Among the major assets, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP are viewed as carrying greater short-term leverage risk than Bitcoin because of the heavier concentration of long positions.
That doesn’t guarantee a correction, but it does increase market sensitivity to negative price momentum.
Why A Cleanup May MatterOnce again, unliquidated Long positions are dominating BTC, ETH, XRP, and SOL.
The market has moved up very weakly over the past few days, and the current moment deserves a bit more attention.
Any slip in the next few hours could allow bears to take control, triggering a new… pic.twitter.com/PsDowAswSY
— Joao Wedson (@joao_wedson) July 7, 2026 The crypto market has seen this pattern before. Excess leverage often fuels sharp volatility, but it can also clear out speculative positions.
According to the assessment, removing excessive leverage may ultimately create healthier market conditions and lay the groundwork for a stronger recovery later. Until then, however, traders could face additional downside pressure and elevated fear if long positions begin unwinding across the market.
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Trust with CoinPedia:CoinPedia has been delivering accurate and timely cryptocurrency and blockchain updates since 2017. All content is created by our expert panel of analysts and journalists, following strict Editorial Guidelines based on E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness). Every article is fact-checked against reputable sources to ensure accuracy, transparency, and reliability. Our review policy guarantees unbiased evaluations when recommending exchanges, platforms, or tools. We strive to provide timely updates about everything crypto & blockchain, right from startups to industry majors.
Investment Disclaimer:All opinions and insights shared represent the author's own views on current market conditions. Please do your own research before making investment decisions. Neither the writer nor the publication assumes responsibility for your financial choices.
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Cayman Islands Trademark Secures Legal FoundationRipple-backed Evernorth has taken another step toward building a publicly traded $XRP treasury, registering its trademark in the Cayman Islands as its Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) initiative advances.
The Evernorth trademark has been publicly recorded in the Cayman Islands, with the filing handled by HSM IP Ltd., a Cayman-based intellectual property firm that frequently manages trademark registrations for companies operating in the jurisdiction. Public records show the word mark was registered under filing number T0004840, with an expiry date of April 1, 2036.
According to the Cayman Islands Gazette, the Evernorth word mark (No. T0004840) has been registered under Classes 36 and 42, covering a wide range of digital asset-related financial and technology services. Under Class 36, the trademark protects services related to digital asset portfolio creation and management, financial advisory and consulting for digital assets, digital asset treasury management, financial custody solutions, and investment strategy information for publicly traded investment funds.
The XRP Digital Asset Treasury is currently pursuing a business combination with Armada Acquisition Corp. II, a Cayman-domiciled SPAC. Establishing the trademark in the Cayman Islands complements this structure, as the jurisdiction is widely used by global investment vehicles due to its tax neutrality, asset protection framework, and efficient intellectual property and global licensing regime.
473 Million XRP and an Active Treasury StrategyEvernorth Holdings and Pathfinder Digital Assets held about 473.1 million XRP as of the end of last year. Ripple contributed 126.8 million XRP to Pathfinder under a contribution agreement, while the sponsor separately contributed 211.3 million XRP through a Series C subscription tied to the broader deal.
Rather than operating as a passive investment vehicle, Evernorth plans to actively grow its XRP reserves. Its strategy includes institutional lending, liquidity provisioning, and participation in decentralized finance (DeFi) yield opportunities to generate additional returns on its holdings.
If the deal closes, the combined company will list under the ticker XRPN and operate as a publicly traded XRP treasury. The company said it has raised over $1 billion in gross proceeds to create the largest public XRP treasury company on Nasdaq. Investors in the transaction include Ripple, SBI Holdings, Pantera Capital, Kraken, and Arrington Capital.
Sources:
The Crypto Basic: Ripple-Backed Evernorth Registers Trademark in Cayman Islands
CoinDesk: Evernorth Unveils 473 Million XRP Treasury and DeFi Strategy
SEC Filing: Evernorth Holdings Inc. Form 425
XRP is holding above key support near $1.11 after a sharp drop, but repeated failures to clear the $1.14–$1.15 zone show its rebound lacks confirmed momentum.Spot XRP ETFs logged a ninth straight week of net inflows despite regulatory uncertainty, underscoring steady institutional interest even as the CLARITY Act faces delays.Traders are watching $1.1110 on the downside and $1.14–$1.15 on the upside, with a clean break above $1.15 opening room toward $1.17–$1.20 and a drop below $1.1110 refocusing attention on $1.08.XRP is still trying to turn last week’s rebound into a cleaner breakout, but the move is struggling for follow-through. Buyers stepped in after a sharp drop toward $1.11 and drove the token back toward resistance, yet XRP failed to hold above the levels needed to confirm momentum. That leaves traders watching whether $1.13-$1.14 becomes support, or another ceiling.
News Background• XRP spot ETFs recorded a ninth consecutive week of net inflows, adding $17.19 million despite broader regulatory uncertainty.
• The CLARITY Act faced delays after a scheduled Senate vote was canceled before the congressional recess, removing a near-term catalyst for digital assets.
• Analysts continue to watch XRP’s long-term descending trendline, with the $1.14-$1.18 zone seen as the next area bulls need to clear.
• Several technical analysts pointed to improving structures, including bullish divergence from the $1.02 lows and a potential Elliott Wave advance, but those setups still require confirmation above resistance.
Price Action Summary• XRP traded near $1.1238 during the 24-hour session, holding above the $1.11 area after a volatile swing lower.
• The token underperformed CD5 by 143 basis points, showing the move was not strongly asset-specific.
• Volume ran 16.19% above the seven-day average, enough to show participation but not enough to confirm a clean breakout.
• The sharpest activity came near the session low around $1.1110, when volume reached 106.5 million XRP, about 129% above the 24-hour average.
• Buyers later pushed XRP toward $1.1507, but the move failed to hold near the upper end of the range.
Technical Analysis• The key development is that XRP defended the $1.11 area, but failed to turn the rebound into a sustained move above $1.13-$1.14.
• The earlier breakout above $1.08 remains intact, but the next leg higher needs stronger volume through resistance.
• The rejection near $1.1507 shows sellers are still active around the same zone that capped recent recovery attempts.
• The hourly structure weakened after XRP failed near $1.1308 and slipped back toward $1.1249, leaving a lower-high pattern intraday.
• XRP remains in a consolidation phase between support near $1.11 and resistance near $1.14-$1.15.
What traders should watch• $1.1110 is the key downside level after buyers defended it during the session.
• $1.1249-$1.1270 is the immediate support zone after the latest intraday pullback.
• $1.1308-$1.1325 is the first resistance area bulls need to reclaim.
• $1.14-$1.15 remains the bigger test after repeated failures near that zone.
• A clean move above $1.15 would shift attention toward $1.17-$1.20, while a break below $1.1110 would weaken the recent recovery and put $1.08 back in focus.
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Building the Zcash Machine: Tachyon and Quantum Readiness
Building the Zcash Machine: Tachyon and Quantum Readiness
Zcash’s Tachyon upgrade aims to scale shielded payments, improve quantum readiness, and test whether its funding, security, and governance can hold.
Jun 30, 2026
Zcash’s Tachyon upgrade aims to scale shielded payments, improve quantum readiness, and test whether its funding, security, and governance can hold.
Why it matters:
Zcash’s Tachyon upgrade aims to scale shielded payments, improve quantum readiness, and test whether its funding, security, and governance can hold.
Key Highlights XRP gained approximately 8% over a seven-day period following a rebound from $1.03 Spot ETF net inflows decreased by 55% during June, falling from $132M to $59M The XRP Binance Scarcity Index reached 0.77, marking its highest reading in over 24 months Binance’s XRP holdings have declined 20% since November 2024, currently sitting at approximately 2.6 billion tokens Critical resistance level identified at $1.20, with upside target at $1.50 and downside risk at $0.80 XRP has demonstrated a solid recovery over the past week, posting gains of nearly 8% after establishing support at the $1.03 level. The digital asset is currently changing hands above $1.15, successfully reclaiming a price point that served as a support threshold before the June downturn.
XRP Price Market activity intensified significantly, with trading volume surging approximately 62% within a 24-hour window to reach $1.8 billion. Such dramatic volume increases typically indicate fresh market participation following periods of subdued trading activity.
This rebound follows a challenging June for XRP holders. The token experienced a significant decline from heights above $1.55 in February, ultimately bottoming out near the $1.00 to $1.04 range by late June—representing the most substantial holder drawdown in over a decade.
Institutional appetite, as measured through ETF flows, painted a cautious picture during this period. Net capital inflows to XRP-linked spot exchange-traded funds contracted from $132 million in May to just $59 million in June, representing a 55% month-over-month decline. Traditional finance interest appeared to wane despite the token’s price compression.
Source: SoSoValue Large Holders Accumulate as Exchange Inventory Tightens Blockchain metrics revealed a contrasting narrative within the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Daily active addresses on the XRP Ledger surged to levels not witnessed since February, as reported by Santiment. During that February timeframe, XRP traded within a $1.47 to $1.54 range.
Concurrently, the XRP Binance Scarcity Index climbed to 0.77 this week, representing its most elevated reading in more than two years, based on analysis from CryptoQuant researcher ArabxChain. This indicator quantifies XRP’s availability on Binance compared to historical benchmarks.
Source: CryptoQuant Binance’s XRP inventory has contracted by approximately 20% since November 2024, declining from roughly 3.27 billion tokens to around 2.6 billion currently. Holdings specifically dropped from about 2.8 billion in May to 2.6 billion by early July, coinciding precisely with the scarcity index’s breakout to new highs.
Market observers at ChartNerd highlighted this technical formation on X, describing XRP’s “3rd Retest” as a favorable entry point for position builders, characterizing it as “a gift” for chart-focused market participants.
Short Position Liquidations Contributed to Initial Rally Futures market data from Coinglass reveals funding rates plunged into deeply negative territory between June 26 and 28, coinciding precisely with the price bottom. This concentration of short positions created conditions favorable for a squeeze.
The subsequent rally to $1.13 appears consistent with forced short covering rather than organic new demand. Funding rates have since normalized to slightly positive, suggesting a healthier positioning landscape.
Immediate resistance is located at $1.20, which previously contained the mid-June recovery attempt. A confirmed daily close above this threshold would expose the $1.35–$1.40 region, representing approximately 22% upside from current pricing.
The daily Relative Strength Index currently reads near 55, indicating additional headroom exists before overbought territory becomes a concern.
The 200-day Exponential Moving Average is positioned at $1.50, which technical analysts identify as the primary bullish objective if buying momentum persists. Conversely, a breakdown below $1.00 would negate the current recovery thesis.
XRP volume recently exceeded Bitcoin on South Korean platform Upbit, providing an interesting data point as market participants evaluate whether genuine demand is materializing.
XRP is witnessing massive demand from across multiple fronts at once, recording capital inflows from real-world asset (RWA) tokenization on the XRPL, ETF inflows, and new wallets. Evernorth, a Ripple-backed digital asset treasury firm, revealed the development amid significant recovery in XRP price.
Huge RWA Tokenization Growth on XRPL: Evernorth Holdings Tokenized RWAs on the XRPL network have grown significantly from almost $150 million a year ago to more than $4 billion, Evernoth Holdings revealed on July 7. This marks a notable growth despite the bear market.
XRP treasury Evernorth highlighted that more than 500 products now live on XRPL. Notably, JMWH and Ondo Short-Term Government Bond Fund are leading tokenized assets representing nearly $2.5 billion in value.
As CoinGape earlier reported, JPMorgan, Ripple, Mastercard, and Ondo Finance completed first cross-border tokenized treasury settlement on XRPL. The transaction was settled in about 4 seconds.
in about four seconds,” Evernoth noted. It added that XRP is recording massive capital inflows from RWA tokenization.
Tokenized RWAs on the XRP Ledger (XRPL). Source: RWAxyz XRP ETFs Record Consistent Inflows Evernorth revealed that spot XRP ETFs follow tokenized RWA in capital inflows. XRP ETFs have recorded consistent inflows as compared to Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs.
Spot XRP ETF inflows reached an 8th week streak, totaling $1.49 billion in cumulative net inflows. Notably, the spot ETFs recorded $17.19 million in total inflows last week. However, it is 4x smaller than the tokenized RWA market.
Evernorth has noted that these inflows signal a shift toward massive institutional participation. It bridges tradFi with the crypto market, as total net assets under management reach $1.05 billion.
XRP ETF Inflows. Source: SoSoValue Rise in XRP Wallets XRP price recovered more than 14% recently before paring gains. The price is currently trading at $1.13, with a 24-hour low and high of $1.11 and $1.16, respectively. Furthermore, trading volume has increased by almost 50% over the last 24 hours.
Evernorth claimed the recent recovery came amid a massive rise in new wallets last week. New wallets have increased from 18.1K to 26K within a few weeks. This marks the highest weekly count since March.
New XRP Wallets per Week. Source: Evernorth Meanwhile, CoinGlass data showed massive buying in the derivatives market in the past few hours. At the time of writing, the total XRP futures open interest jumped 1% to $2.38 billion in the last 4 hours. Futures OI on CME jumped 3.21% and almost 0.75% on Binance.
Ripple has secured a Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) authorization from Luxembourg’s financial regulator, CSSF, achieving full regulatory approval within the European Union under the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework. This milestone enables Ripple to provide compliant crypto payment solutions across 30 countries in the European Economic Area (EEA).
Single authorization powers EU-wide operationsBuilding on its earlier approval in June and in combination with its existing Electronic Money Institution license, Ripple now enjoys a significantly expanded operational scope within the EU. This means the company can offer regulated services across all EEA countries without the need to secure individual licenses for each nation.
Cassie Craddock, Ripple’s Managing Director for the UK and Europe, emphasized that Ripple is now fully compliant in Europe and ready to scale in the post-MiCA landscape.
This authorization allows financial institutions, payment firms, and enterprise clients to benefit from Ripple’s regulated payments infrastructure in all 30 EEA countries. With this structure, Ripple becomes one of the select digital asset companies holding both full MiCA authorization and an electronic money license at the same time.
Quick glossary: CSSF is the official authority supervising Luxembourg’s financial sector. CASP refers to the license required under MiCA to offer crypto asset custody, trading, transfers, and related services.
MiCA transition period now endedThe European Union’s transition window for MiCA compliance closed on July 1, 2026. After this deadline, crypto companies operating without the necessary authorizations must either cease activities within the EU or risk facing regulatory sanctions.
On Friday, the European Securities and Markets Authority published an updated list featuring 280 authorized crypto-asset service providers. This figure, up from 243 the previous week, reflects the addition of 37 new entrants, including Standard Chartered, FalconX, and Sygnum Europe.
Compliance race among exchanges and firmsNot all companies managed to meet the deadline. Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume, withdrew its MiCA license application in Greece before July 1. The company is now seeking approval through another EU country as part of its revised strategy.
Because day-to-day oversight remains with national authorities, regulatory implementation may vary across member states. For example, Belgium’s Financial Services and Markets Authority recently added six crypto firms to its unauthorized service provider list, after finding they were operating without proper approval.
Ripple’s global licensing footprint expandsRipple’s regulatory portfolio has now surpassed 75 licenses worldwide, spanning multiple regions. This includes approval from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, granted in January 2026. The newly acquired authorization from Luxembourg marks the latest step in Ripple’s strategy to grow its global licensing network.
By integrating crypto-asset services with electronic money operations, Ripple gains a broader financial reach than many competitors. Following MiCA’s implementation, the company is expected to further expand its institutional payments business across Europe within this regulatory framework.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
Key Highlights Ripple committed to match contributions to the Call of Duty Endowment up to $10,000 in XRP during an Independence Day charitable initiative The Call of Duty Endowment focuses on connecting unemployed military veterans with employment opportunities and has successfully placed more than 165,000 veterans Ripple initiated a promotional campaign at Union Station in Washington D.C. advocating for clearer cryptocurrency regulations Ripple obtained its MiCA license through Luxembourg’s financial oversight authority, enabling full regulatory compliance throughout all 30 European Economic Area nations Ripple currently maintains over 75 regulatory licenses globally, with XRP valued at approximately $1.14 during this reporting period On Independence Day, Ripple revealed its commitment to match charitable contributions made to the Call of Duty Endowment with a cap of $10,000 in XRP. This initiative aligned with America250’s Giving4th program, which encourages July 4th to be recognized as a nationwide day dedicated to philanthropic contributions.
The Call of Duty Endowment operates as a charitable organization dedicated to assisting unemployed veterans in securing quality employment in the civilian workforce. According to the organization, it has successfully facilitated job placements for more than 165,000 veterans and aims to reach 200,000 placements by the year 2030.
Ripple opened the donation platform to accept multiple forms of contributions, including cash, stocks, XRP, and its dollar-backed stablecoin RLUSD. The blockchain firm pledged to provide matching funds in XRP once the donation threshold of $10,000 was achieved.
As of this report, the fundraising effort had accumulated $814.19. XRP was being exchanged at approximately $1.14, reflecting a decline of roughly 50% compared to the previous year.
Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse was acknowledged by social media users for his support of this charitable endeavor.
Ripple Launches Advocacy Campaign in Nation’s Capital Ripple simultaneously unveiled a physical advertising initiative at Union Station in Washington D.C., recognized as one of America’s most heavily trafficked transportation centers. The promotional materials feature statements such as “It’s happening with Ripple” and “More certainty for crypto.”
The strategic placement positions Ripple’s messaging directly in view of lawmakers, corporate leaders, and the millions of commuters passing through daily. Cryptocurrency analyst SMQKE was among the first to draw attention to this campaign.
This strategic move arrives during a pivotal moment as the United States digital asset sector navigates evolving policy frameworks. Ripple seems to be establishing itself as an organization prioritizing regulatory transparency.
Ripple Achieves Significant European Regulatory Milestone On July 6, Ripple disclosed that it had been granted authorization for its Crypto Asset Service Provider license by Luxembourg’s Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier. This achievement establishes Ripple as fully compliant within the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation framework, commonly referred to as MiCA.
This regulatory clearance enables Ripple to provide compliant digital asset services throughout all 30 nations within the European Economic Area. The authorization extends to financial institutions, corporations, and commercial enterprises across the entire region.
According to Ripple, the company now possesses more than 75 regulatory licenses on a worldwide basis. The MiCA authorization grants Ripple access to one of the planet’s most substantial regulated financial ecosystems.
The blockchain payments company demonstrated activity across several strategic areas, merging philanthropic engagement, public awareness initiatives, and regulatory advancement within the same seven-day period.
XRP traded near $1.13 on July 7, down 1.69% in the past 24 hours, according to crypto.news market data.
Summary
XRP’s rebound needs a clear break above $1.14 to confirm stronger short-term momentum for bulls. ETF inflows remain positive, but CLARITY delays have removed a near-term policy catalyst for XRP. Spot CVD has improved across exchanges while Binance perpetual traders keep selling into rebounds. The token moved between $1.11 and $1.16 during the session, while trading volume stood at about $1.73 billion.
The rebound from the late-June low near $1.00 remains intact, but buyers have not yet turned it into a stronger breakout. the token pushed back toward the $1.14 to $1.18 zone, but it failed to hold the upper part of that range.
The price now sits near a short-term decision area. A close above $1.14 would show that buyers are gaining control. A clean move above $1.18 to $1.20 would give bulls a stronger signal and place the next resistance levels back in focus.
The downside level is also clear. If XRP loses $1.10, the current rebound would weaken. A move below that area could expose $1.06, which some traders now see as the next retest zone.
XRP ETF inflows help, but policy catalyst slips The recovery has come while XRP-linked investment products continue to attract demand. The latest background data showed spot XRP ETFs recorded a ninth straight week of net inflows, adding $17.19 million despite broader policy uncertainty.
Those inflows have helped support the market, but they have not been enough to break the larger downtrend. As previously reported, XRP ETFs gave investors regulated access, but they did not solve the wider legal question around XRP’s status under U.S. law.
The CLARITY Act remains the main policy catalyst for many traders. The bill missed its July 4 target and now faces an Aug. 7 deadline before the Senate’s summer break.
That delay removed a near-term trigger for digital assets. The bill has passed the House, cleared the Senate Banking Committee, and sits on the Senate calendar, but staff still need to merge Banking and Agriculture versions before a full Senate vote.
Moreover, Standard Chartered has said XRP ETFs could attract $4 billion to $8 billion in first-year inflows if CLARITY passes. That forecast depends on legal clarity unlocking larger institutional demand.
Technical setup stays mixed The XRP/USDT daily chart shows price recovering from the late-June low, but the broader trend remains weak after the June breakdown. The token is trading above the middle Bollinger Band near $1.10, which keeps the short-term rebound alive.
The upper Bollinger Band sits near $1.18. That matches the area traders are watching for a stronger breakout. Until the token closes above that zone, the move remains a rebound inside a weak structure rather than a confirmed trend shift.
XRP price chart, source: crypto.news The lower Bollinger Band sits near $1.01. That level remains important if selling pressure returns. A break below $1.10 would increase the risk of a move back toward that area.
Momentum also shows a mixed picture. The Stochastic RSI is elevated, with readings near 88.63 and 95.08. That shows strong short-term momentum, but it also places XRP close to overbought territory. Since the faster line has moved below the slower line, the rebound may be losing some force.
EGRAG Crypto said XRP must defend $1.10 after moving below the 21 EMA on the four-hour chart. He said, “Hold $1.10 = structure still alive,” while a loss of $1.06 would increase caution.
#XRP – The Retest That Matters 👀 – Short-Term ( 4H TF): #XRP is now at the real short-term test.
📒Note: We broke below the 21 EMA, and you all know the 21 EMA is my momentum gauge across timeframes.
📒Note: But the structure is not dead yet. Why? Because #XRP is now wicking… pic.twitter.com/8T7pBTbQHE
— EGRAG CRYPTO (@egragcrypto) July 6, 2026 Dark Defender took a more bullish weekly view and said XRP is “launching the Wave 5 without the Clarity Act.” Other analysts also pointed to higher long-term targets, but those views still depend on price clearing the current resistance zone first.
Spot demand rises while perps stay defensive On-chain and derivatives data show a split market. CryptoQuant analyst Amr Taha said XRP’s estimated spot CVD across centralized exchanges rose from about minus $42 million on May 12 to plus $406 million by July 7.
That change points to stronger spot buying across exchanges. It suggests market buyers have absorbed more available XRP supply over the past two months.
The derivatives market shows the opposite trend. Binance perpetual CVD fell from about minus $48 million to minus $783 million over the same period. That shows sustained sell-side pressure from perpetual traders.
Open interest also fell from about $255 million on May 22 to $203 million on July 7. That drop suggests leveraged traders have reduced exposure while spot buyers have become more active.
Binance spot data has improved, but it has not turned positive. Estimated spot CVD on Binance rose from about minus $212 million on June 25 to minus $173 million on July 7, showing that selling pressure has eased but not fully reversed.
Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.
Ripple has announced it will match all XRP donations up to $10,000 in support of a fundraising drive for the Call of Duty Endowment, timed to coincide with America’s Independence Day. The campaign, which aligns with America250’s Giving4th initiative, encourages nationwide participation in giving and solidarity on July 4th. Ripple’s matching offer aims to boost engagement and support for veterans seeking employment opportunities after their military service.
Ripple pledges support for veteransCall of Duty Endowment is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping unemployed military veterans find meaningful work in civilian life. According to the foundation, over 165,000 veterans have been placed in jobs so far, and its goal is to increase this number to 200,000 by 2030. Ripple announced that contributions could be made in cash, stocks, XRP, or the US dollar–backed stablecoin RLUSD, and committed to matching every donation up to $10,000 in XRP.
At the time of reporting, the campaign had collected $814.19, with XRP trading at around $1.14. Social media users expressed their gratitude to Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse for his support of the initiative. Garlinghouse, known as a prominent leader at Ripple, often represents the company in its statements on regulatory developments.
Ripple has pledged to match donations to the Call of Duty Endowment up to $10,000 in XRP, channeling this assistance to support US veterans through the organization’s programs.
The matching campaign not only highlights Ripple’s commitment to corporate social responsibility, but also leverages the cryptocurrency community’s enthusiasm for charitable causes. By supporting veteran reintegration efforts, Ripple aims to make a broader impact as part of the July 4th Giving4th movement.
Regulatory spotlight in WashingtonSimultaneously, Ripple launched a physical advertising campaign at Union Station in Washington, DC, one of America’s busiest transit hubs. The campaign’s messaging emphasized Ripple’s ongoing leadership role and called for greater regulatory clarity in the cryptocurrency market.
With this strategic placement, Ripple brought its message face to face with policymakers, business leaders, and the thousands of commuters passing through the station daily. Cryptocurrency analyst SMQKE was among the first to highlight the campaign on social media, underscoring its public reach.
The advertisements at Union Station brought Ripple’s call for clearer crypto asset regulations directly into the center of attention for key decision-makers and the business community.
The campaign represents Ripple’s broader effort to influence regulatory dialogue and underscores the importance of structured policies for the digital asset sector in the US.
On July 6, Ripple received approval for a Crypto Asset Service Provider license from Luxembourg’s financial regulator, CSSF. This development allows the company to operate compliantly under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) legal framework, which creates uniform rules for providing crypto services across the EU.
MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation) is the EU’s comprehensive legislation setting common standards for crypto service providers, while CSSF oversees financial regulations in Luxembourg. The new authorization enables Ripple to offer compliant digital asset services in all 30 countries within the European Economic Area, expanding its reach to financial institutions, corporations, and commercial enterprises across the region.
Ripple stated that it now holds more than 75 regulatory licenses worldwide. In the same week, the company launched a charitable campaign, conducted a visibility initiative in the US capital, and solidified its regulatory standing in Europe—a series of coordinated moves reflecting Ripple’s multifaceted global strategy.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
DOGE, ADA, and XLM are the other losers from the larger-cap alts.
Bitcoin’s price faced a real rollercoaster in the past 24 hours after Strategy announced another sale, this time a lot bigger than the previous. However, it managed to recover most of the losses and even spiked somewhat surprisingly.
Most altcoins have remained relatively sluggish on a daily scale. XRP has dipped further away from a critical support line after failing at $1.15 earlier.
BTC Rebounds After Strategy Drop Bitcoin dipped below $58,000 on July 1 for the first time in nearly two years but reacted well and started to recover some of the losses almost immediately. It surged past $60,000 and kept climbing in the following days, even during the past weekend.
Its gradual rebound pushed the asset to over $63,500 on Sunday, where it faced resistance and slipped to under $63,000. Another leg up followed on Monday morning, with the bulls driving BTC to $64,000 for the first time in about two weeks.
However, then came the big news from Strategy. The largest corporate holder of BTC disposed of over 3,500 units, which led to an immediate price drop to $61,200. As the FUD kept spreading, though, the cryptocurrency rebounded instantly and surged past $64,500 by the end of the day to mark another local peak.
It couldn’t keep climbing and has returned to $63,000 as of now, the level it stood at yesterday before Strategy’s announcement. Its market cap remains above $1.260 trillion, while its dominance over the alts is still at 56.6% on CG.
BTCUSD July 7. Source: TradingView XRP, DOGE in the Red Most larger-cap alts have managed to defend their levels after yesterday’s volatility. Ethereum is still stuck between $1,750 and $1,800, while BNB remains below $580. XRP has dropped further away from the key support at $1.15 following a 1.3% daily decline to $1.1275.
Even more painful drops are evident from DOGE, ADA, XLM, and CC. While the first couple are down by 2-3%, the last has dumped by over 5% daily. In contrast, SOL, HYPE, RAIN, and ZEC have posted minor gains, while WLFI, AAVE, MORPHO, and DEXE have gained up to 8%.
The total crypto market cap continues to sit in a familiar range, currently at $2.240 trillion.
Cryptocurrency Market Overview July 7. Source: QuantifyCrypto
In recent days, the cryptocurrency market has seen a wave of rebound buying, creating distinct technical patterns among three major assets. While attempts at recovery in Dogecoin and Bitcoin have so far been limited, XRP’s daily chart has shown a noteworthy RSI divergence—a potential early sign of a reversal. Despite these movements, trading volumes across all three cryptocurrencies remain insufficient to confirm a strong market rebound.
Dogecoin’s recovery lacks strong volumeDogecoin has managed to bounce from its local low around $0.07, clawing back some recent losses. However, the technical outlook suggests this is more of a brief relief rally than the beginning of a lasting trend reversal. Low trading activity remains the weakest link in Dogecoin’s latest upward attempt.
Despite modest gains in recent sessions, purchasing interest in Dogecoin lags behind levels seen during past recoveries. Historically, significant Dogecoin rallies have coincided with clear spikes in trading volume. The current situation indicates that buyers have yet to return to the market in force.
The latest green candles on Dogecoin’s chart have formed with relatively low participation, leading analysts to view the move as a temporary reaction rather than a sustained rally.
DOGE continues to trade below all major moving averages, maintaining a bearish technical structure. Even if a short-term bounce materializes, strong selling pressure is expected between $0.08 and $0.09. Since the May peak, Dogecoin’s price action has consistently set lower highs and lower lows, a classic hallmark of a downtrend.
XRP’s bullish RSI divergence stands outXRP has delivered one of the most notable technical signals in recent weeks. Even as its price touched a new local low near $1.05, the RSI indicator did not confirm the drop. This setup, known in the market as a bullish divergence, is often interpreted as an early hint of a potential reversal.
Glossary: RSI, or Relative Strength Index, is a momentum indicator. When price makes a new low but RSI does not, this divergence can signal weakening selling pressure.
This pattern suggests that while sellers can still push XRP to short-term lows, the downside momentum appears to be fading. Nonetheless, the broader trend has yet to turn positive. XRP continues to trade beneath all major moving averages, with the 50-day exponential moving average now acting as the nearest dynamic resistance.
XRP’s bullish RSI divergence is currently the most promising positive signal on its chart, though a meaningful reversal will require both a breakout above resistance and strong trading volume.
Should XRP reclaim ground above the 50-day average, the $1.20 to $1.30 range may come back into play. This area aligns with the 100-day moving average and former support-turned-resistance levels. For now, however, normal trading volumes indicate that the latest recovery has yet to attract broad-based buying.
Bitcoin’s cautious recovery keeps sentiment in checkBitcoin has rebounded from its recent low near $59,000, but current price action fails to confirm a strong trend reversal. The end of June’s sharp sell-off offered the market a brief respite, but the wider technical picture still calls for caution rather than optimism.
The break of the trendline that had supported April and May’s climb triggered a sharp wave of liquidations, erasing much of the preceding gains. While rapid drops can sometimes lead to short-lived rebounds, most analysts do not see the latest move as evidence of a lasting turnaround. Notably, the strongest trading volumes of recent weeks have taken place during sell-offs, indicating distribution rather than accumulation.
For Bitcoin to signal a more reliable comeback, it must first reclaim the 50-day exponential moving average around $63,000, followed by the 100-day average near $66,000. Until these levels are recovered, the current upswing will be viewed as a technical relief rally within a broader downtrend.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
Leading cryptocurrencies moved sideways on Monday as high-profile Bitcoin sell-offs were offset by growing optimism for a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.
Bitcoin Dips And Then RipsEthereum oscillated between $1,728 and $1,820 throughout the day, with trading volume surging 43% over the last 24 hours.
Over $500 million was liquidated from the cryptocurrency market in the last 24 hours, with nearly $300 million in bearish short positions erased, according to Coinglass data
Market sentiment improved from “Extreme Fear” to “Fear,” according to the Crypto Fear & Greed Index.
Top Gainers (24 Hours)
The global cryptocurrency market capitalization stood at $2.21 trillion, following a modest increase of 0.48% over the last 24 hours.
Stocks Rally To Kick Off Big WeekStocks started the fresh trading week on a high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 136.46 points, or 0.26%, for a record close of 52,319.20. The S&P 500 gained 0.79% to close at 7,499.36, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite
lifted 1.52% to settle at 26,213.72.
What To Expect Next?Michaël van de Poppe, a widely followed cryptocurrency analyst and trader, reaffirms his Bitcoin thesis, noting a higher low formed and potential tests of recent highs in the days ahead.
“There’s a lot of upside to come if Bitcoin breaks back in the range, as the liquidity will likely flow towards altcoins rather than Bitcoin,” the analyst projected.
Ali Martinez, another influential cryptocurrency commentator, flagged $1,796 as the immediate resistance for Ethereum, with a daily close and hold above it strengthening the case for a rally to the realized price target of $2,245.
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Ripple (XRP) and Stellar (XLM) are trading under pressure on Tuesday as bulls lose steam. XRP faces rejection near key resistance, while XLM continues its pullback so far this week. Despite the ongoing correction, mixed on-chain and derivatives metrics suggest traders remain cautiously optimistic for these altcoins.
Mixed sentiment among derivatives tradersDerivatives data shows a mixed outlook. CoinGlass’ long-to-short ratio for XRP reads 0.73 on Tuesday, the lowest level over a month. During the same period, XLM's long-to-short ratio stands at 0.84, nearing the lowest level over a month. This ratio, being below 1, reflects bearish sentiment in the market, as more traders are betting the asset’s price will fall.
XRP long-to-short ratio chart. Source: Coinglass
XLM long-to-short ratio chart. Source: CoinglassHowever, XRP and XLM funding rates remain positive, at 0.0061% and 0.0058%, respectively, on Tuesday. These positive rates indicate that longs are paying the shorts, suggesting bullish sentiment.
XRP funding rates chart. Source: Coinglass
XLM funding rates chart. Source: CoinglassOn-chain metrics show cautious optimismCryptoQuant’s summary data shows cautious optimism. XRP’s spot and futures markets show large-whale orders, with neutral conditions on other metrics, supporting a potential recovery. However, XLM shows selling-side dominance in both markets, with mixed retail activity and large-whale orders in the futures market, hinting at cautious sentiment among traders.
XRP summary data chart. Source: CryptoQuant
XLM summary data chart. Source: CryptoQuantSoSoValue data shows institutional demand began the week with a neutral tone. Spot Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) were muted on Monday, following a net inflow of $17.19 million last week. If this inflow trend continues and intensifies this week, XRP could see a recovery ahead.
Total XRP spot ETF net inflow weekly chart. Source: SoSoValueXRP technical outlook: Faces rejection from 50-day EMAXRP price trades at $1.1393 on Tuesday, maintaining a bearish near-term tone as it remains below the 50-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) at $1.1820, the 100-day EMA at $1.2834 and the longer-term 200-day EMA at $1.4912.
The downward parallel channel offers a modicum of structure, with price holding above its lower band around $1.1054, while the Relative Strength Index (RSI) hovers near a neutral 51, and the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) stays in positive territory but shows a slight loss of momentum, hinting at a capped recovery rather than a decisive trend reversal.
On the topside, immediate resistance emerges at the 50-day EMA at $1.1820, followed by the 100-day EMA at $1.2834 and the horizontal barrier at $1.3000, with the 200-day EMA at $1.4912 and the prior resistance line near $1.9000 marking higher hurdles for any sustained advance.
On the downside, initial support aligns with the lower boundary of the descending channel around $1.1054, and a clear break below this floor would reinforce the prevailing bearish bias and open the door to a deeper pullback in the coming sessions.
XLM technical outlook: Finds support around key levelsXLM price trades at $0.1978 on Tuesday, holding above the 50-day and 100-day EMAs at $0.1922 and $0.1872, reinforcing a mildly bullish near-term bias. The pair is still capped just underneath the 200-day EMA at $0.1985 and the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement at $0.2001, while the RSI around 51 and a positive MACD line above zero suggest steady but not overextended upside momentum.
On the topside, initial resistance is at the 200-day EMA at $0.1985, followed closely by the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement at $0.2001, with higher hurdles at $0.2188 and $0.2376 before the next Fibonacci barrier at $0.2607.
On the downside, immediate support is seen at the 50-day EMA at $0.1922, ahead of the 100-day EMA at $0.1872, while a horizontal level at $0.1774 and the 78.6% Fibonacci retracement at $0.1735 guard against a deeper pullback before the more distant structural floor near $0.1421.
(The technical analysis of this story was written with the help of an AI tool. Know more.)
Ripple FAQs Ripple is a payments company that specializes in cross-border remittance. The company does this by leveraging blockchain technology. RippleNet is a network used for payments transfer created by Ripple Labs Inc. and is open to financial institutions worldwide. The company also leverages the XRP token.
XRP is the native token of the decentralized blockchain XRPLedger. The token is used by Ripple Labs to facilitate transactions on the XRPLedger, helping financial institutions transfer value in a borderless manner. XRP therefore facilitates trustless and instant payments on the XRPLedger chain, helping financial firms save on the cost of transacting worldwide.
XRPLedger is based on a distributed ledger technology and the blockchain using XRP to power transactions. The ledger is different from other blockchains as it has a built-in inflammatory protocol that helps fight spam and distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks. The XRPL is maintained by a peer-to-peer network known as the global XRP Ledger community.
XRP uses the interledger standard. This is a blockchain protocol that aids payments across different networks. For instance, XRP’s blockchain can connect the ledgers of two or more banks. This effectively removes intermediaries and the need for centralization in the system. XRP acts as the native token of the XRPLedger blockchain engineered by Jed McCaleb, Arthur Britto and David Schwartz.
XRP is now close to a recording death cross between the 20-week EMA and the 200-week SMA, which could determine its next direction from here.
A death cross forms when a short-term moving average drops below a long-term one. While this is often discussed in terms of the 50-day and 200-day moving averages, the same idea applies to other pairs, including the 20-week EMA and the 200-week SMA.
200W SMA and 20W EMA Seeing Opposing Trends Right now, this crossover has not happened yet, but it looks very close. Since October 2025, the two indicators have been moving in opposite directions and seem to be gradually converging.
Notably, the 200-week SMA has been rising since late 2024, but only at a slow and steady pace. Meanwhile, the 20-week EMA entered an uptrend from November 2024, but things changed after it reached a high of $2.77 in October 2025. Since then, the shorter-term average has been falling.
The gap between these two indicators has become smaller over time. At the moment, the 20-week EMA stands at $1.34 and is still declining, while the 200-week SMA has climbed to $1.209 and continues its gradual rise.
XRP Weekly Death Cross Imminent If the 20-week EMA falls below the 200-week SMA, it would be the first time this has happened since November 2024. For context, in November 2024, the moving averages witnessed a golden cross, which coincided with a broader market rally linked to Donald Trump’s election victory.
What This Could Mean for XRP Price Action A death cross usually points to growing selling pressure. In this case, it would show that sellers are gaining more control and that the downtrend is still in place. However, in some cases, this signal appears close to a market bottom.
For instance, in July 2022, XRP showed a similar pattern. At that time, the price had already dropped to a low of $0.28 in June 2022 and was starting to recover. After the death cross formed, XRP still fell slightly to about $0.31 by Q3 2022.
Following this low, the market stabilized, but XRP saw a consolidation instead of a decisive uptrend despite avoiding further declines. A strong bull run did not begin until November 2024, nearly two years later.
However, not every case follows the same path. During the 2018/2019 bear market, a similar crossover happened in October 2019. XRP continued to fall for several months after the signal, eventually reaching a low of $0.1140 in March 2020. It took about five months for the market to find a bottom.
However, this period coincided with the March 2020 crash caused by the COVID-19 crisis, which many see as an unexpected Black Swan event.
As a result, some analysts treat it as an exception. If no similar shock happens now, XRP could follow the 2022 pattern, where the death cross appeared close to the bottom and was followed by a period of consolidation within weeks.
Key XRP Levels to Watch While each market cycle is different, data from these past trends suggest that XRP could form a bottom between now and the end of the year or within the next six months, depending on how the market develops.
Most analysts believe the next major support lies between $0.8 and $0.9. On-chain data supports this view. Specifically, the UTXO Realized Price Distribution (URPD) shows that below the $1.06 support level, the next strong support sits around $0.8, where about 923 million XRP was previously traded.
With XRP currently priced at $1.13, a drop to the $0.8 to $0.9 range would mean a decline of around 20% to 29%. Whether the price reaches that level or stabilizes earlier will depend on how the market reacts as this possible death cross plays out.
DisClamier: This content is informational and should not be considered financial advice. The views expressed in this article may include the author's personal opinions and do not reflect The Crypto Basic opinion. Readers are encouraged to do thorough research before making any investment decisions. The Crypto Basic is not responsible for any financial losses.
XRP outperformed both Bitcoin and Ethereum in daily trading activity on South Korea’s largest crypto exchange, Upbit, highlighting its continued appeal among local traders.
Over the past 24 hours, Upbit recorded a total trading volume of $493.74 million. During this period, XRP led all assets with $52.33 million in trades, accounting for nearly 10% of total exchange activity.
By contrast, Bitcoin posted $42.14 million in volume, representing 8.54% of the total. Meanwhile, Ethereum followed with $24.3 million, or 4.92% of overall trading activity.
Notably, the data shows that XRP maintained a clear lead over the two largest cryptocurrencies by market cap on the exchange during the reporting window.
XRP Surpasses Bitcoin and Ethereum in Volume on Upbit South Korean Traders Continue to Favor XRP Beyond the latest figures, XRP’s strong performance on Upbit reflects a broader and persistent trend in South Korea’s crypto market.
Earlier this year, XRP trading activity on Upbit surged sharply, including a notable 289% spike in volume within a single hour. During the same period, Binance recorded a smaller 128% increase, underscoring the intensity of Korean market participation.
In addition, large-holder activity has reinforced this demand. In May, an unknown investor withdrew 6.3 million XRP from Upbit. Around the same time, on-chain data showed whales moving $135 million worth of XRP off exchanges within a week, a pattern often associated with long-term accumulation.
Overall, XRP’s ability to outperform Bitcoin and Ethereum on Upbit highlights its unusually strong foothold in South Korea’s trading ecosystem.
XRP Extends Recovery After Market Sell-Off Meanwhile, XRP continues to recover from last month’s broader market downturn, which briefly pushed its price down to $1.01.
Since then, XRP has rebounded to around $1.14, marking a 12.87% gain. Despite this recovery, global trading activity has cooled, with XRP’s overall volume falling 31% over the past 24 hours to about $1.21 billion.
Nonetheless, momentum remains cautiously positive. XRP has climbed 0.23% over the past day and roughly 9.5% over the past week, as buyers gradually re-enter the market. XRP currently ranks as the sixth-largest cryptocurrency globally, with a market cap of about $70.79 billion.
Interestingly, spot flow data from CoinGlass shows that investors are steadily withdrawing XRP from exchanges. Over the past seven days, investors have removed $30.38 million worth of XRP from trading platforms. In addition, they have pulled a total of $147.5 million over the past month, according to CoinGlass data.
These consistent outflows suggest that more investors are moving XRP into long-term holdings rather than keeping it on exchanges for trading.
DisClamier: This content is informational and should not be considered financial advice. The views expressed in this article may include the author's personal opinions and do not reflect The Crypto Basic opinion. Readers are encouraged to do thorough research before making any investment decisions. The Crypto Basic is not responsible for any financial losses.
The recovery in Bitcoin and altcoins that began last week has given way to a decline following the sell-off news from Strategy.
As the BTC price falls below $62,000, Ethereum and altcoins are also experiencing significant declines.
With the FOMC minutes expected to be released this week, one analyst says the crypto market has entered a significant recovery phase in the short term.
However, the analyst also warns that the bear market trend is not yet over and further declines are likely later in the year.
In this context, Gareth Soloway, who has 24 years of experience in technical analysis, shared his price expectations for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP in his latest YouTube video.
1) Bitcoin (BTC): The analyst indicates that the short-term target is the $73,000 to $74,000 range, where a significant downward trend line acts as resistance.
The analyst also notes that he will maintain his short-term bullish outlook if Bitcoin remains above $58,000 on a closing basis.
However, the analyst adds that this expectation is short-term, that the final phase of the bear market has not yet arrived, and that he expects Bitcoin to eventually fall below $50,000 as part of the final phase.
2) Ethereum (ETH): Analysts note that Ethereum, the largest altcoin, has broken out of a significant trendline structure, and the first resistance will be around $1,800.
The analyst, who believes ETH will break through this resistance, stated that ETH will rise towards $2,000 and will reassess itself at that level.
3) XRP: The analyst, who also stated that he expects a short-term rise for XRP, noted that the wedge formation on the XRP chart is breaking out, which could mean further upside.
According to the analyst, XRP has broken out of a multi-month wedge formation that extends until early 2025. The analyst believes that the longer the wedge formation lasts, the larger the breakout movement tends to be.
Finally, the analyst added that before the next upward move in XRP, he expects a pullback towards $1.1, and then targets the $1.25 resistance zone.
*This is not investment advice.
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Optimism is surging once again for XRP, as expectations of a significant rally have started to regain traction in the crypto market. Crypto analyst Dark Defender claims that XRP has entered the long-awaited fifth wave in its Elliott Wave cycle, emphasizing that this rally is driven more by technical analysis than by regulatory developments.
A focus on technical factorsAccording to Dark Defender, XRP has completed its weekly correction, paving the way for a new upward trend. The analyst notes that this process began independently of the passage of the CLARITY Act in the United States—a proposed bill aiming to clarify the regulatory landscape for digital assets.
XRP is kickstarting its fifth wave without waiting for the CLARITY Act. The weekly correction has wrapped up. Double-digit prices could be next.
This assessment suggests that hopes for a bullish breakout in XRP are being shaped more by price action and technical signals than by pending regulatory outcomes. While some investors still see regulatory clarity as a powerful catalyst, Dark Defender believes a portion of the anticipated price movement has already been priced in by the market.
Anticipating the fifth Elliott WaveWithin the Elliott Wave theory, the fifth wave is typically the final surge in a cycle and can sometimes be the most explosive stage. In this context, Dark Defender is raising the possibility of XRP reaching double-digit prices, noting that the $10 region should be seen as a major threshold rather than the ultimate peak.
According to CoinCodex data, at the time this report was prepared, XRP was trading at $1.12. If XRP were to rally to $10 from its current price, it would represent a staggering 800 percent increase.
IndicatorLevelCurrent price$1.12First major upside target$2Key psychological threshold$10Potential move from $1.12 to $10Approx. 800%Chart patterns and market conditionsXRP continues to consolidate within a symmetrical triangle formation. In technical analysis, this setup often signals that a substantial price move is on the horizon. As the trading range narrows, the $2 mark emerges as the next significant target if buyers regain momentum.
The analyst notes that XRP’s long-term technical structure remains robust and sees potential for further gains, independent of regulatory headlines.
Nevertheless, achieving the bold $10 target will require not only sustained buying appetite but also supportive overall market sentiment, favorable liquidity conditions, and the absence of negative regulatory surprises. Given these factors, technical indicators may be positive, but the trajectory for XRP will ultimately depend on wider market dynamics.
Dark Defender’s recent evaluation has become one of the notable commentaries fueling the renewed bullish narrative around XRP. If his Elliott Wave count proves accurate, XRP could be entering the most dynamic growth phase of its current market cycle.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
Ripple on Monday secured full Crypto Asset Service Provider authorization from Luxembourg’s financial regulator, making it compliant to offer crypto services across all 30 European Economic Area countries.
What The MiCA Authorization Actually Unlocks For RippleThe approval from Luxembourg’s Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier follows Ripple’s preliminary clearance in June and comes days after MiCA’s final transition period completed on July 1.
Ripple’s end-to-end regulated crypto payments product now carries passporting rights across the entire EEA, available to financial institutions, corporates, and businesses throughout the bloc.
“This CASP authorisation means Ripple enters the post-transitional MiCA era fully compliant and ready to scale,” said Cassie Craddock, Managing Director for UK and Europe at Ripple.
The authorization adds to Ripple’s existing EU Electronic Money Institution license and UK FCA registration secured in January 2026, bringing its global regulatory portfolio to more than 75 licenses.
Only 280 Firms Made It Through MiCA, Binance Didn’tOf the more than 3,000 companies that previously operated under national crypto regimes across Europe, just 280 have secured CASP authorization under MiCA’s unified framework, according to ESMA’s July 3 register update.
Ripple joins Kraken, Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN), OKX, and Crypto.com among the authorized firms.
Binance entered the post-transition period without authorization after withdrawing its Greek license application ahead of the July 1 deadline, leaving the world’s largest crypto exchange by volume operating in a regulatory gray zone across the EEA.
XRP Falls 3% Despite The Regulatory WinXRP (CRYPTO: XRP) is trading near the upper trendline of the descending channel it has held since mid-May.
The Parabolic SAR at $1.0142 sits below price, a mildly constructive near-term signal, but the full EMA stack remains firmly bearish with the 20 EMA at $1.1152 below the 50 EMA at $1.1817, which sits below the 100 EMA at $1.2850 and the 200 EMA at $1.4954.
A daily close above $1.20 would meaningfully shift the short-term bias. Until then the $1.00 to $1.05 demand zone below remains the key support floor to watch on any continued selling.
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Ripple joins Call of Duty Endowment to support American veterans.
The United States of America celebrated its 250th Independence Day on July 4.
“With a single sheet of parchment and 56 signatures, America began the greatest political journey in human history,” said President Donald Trump.
As the world's leading economy celebrated the Semiquincentennial, the blockchain technology and financial payments company Ripple stepped up to support American veterans.
Ripple to match donations to veterans up to $10K in XRP Ripple announced on July 4 that it is going to match donations to the Call of Duty Endowment, a nonprofit organization that helps unemployed veterans get high-quality jobs after their military service, up to $10,000 in XRP.
The Call of Duty Endowment claims to have supported the placement of over 165,000 veterans and aims to place 200,000 vets in jobs by 2030.
Ripple said it is supporting the organization as part of the Giving 4th campaign so that Independence Day becomes a national day of charitable giving.
The company encouraged users to donate to support the veterans with cash, stocks, XRP, or Ripple's USD-pegged stablecoin RLUSD.
In turn, Ripple said it will match the donation in XRP, up to a maximum match of $10,000.
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Ripple's Call of Duty Endowment campaign for U.S. veterans
Users thanked the Ripple team and CEO Brad Garlinghouse for supporting American veterans.
At the time of writing, the campaign has raised $814.19, and if and when the amount reaches $10,000, Ripple said it will match the amount in XRP.
At press time, XRP was trading at $1.14, down around 50% in a year.
Popular on TheStreet Roundtable:Veteran trader who called 50% gold crash makes major predictionMichael Saylor predicts Bitcoin's next decadeCathie Wood expects a volatile Bitcoin uptrendRipple becomes fully MiCA-compliantRipple made another major announcement on July 6 that it has received authorization of its Crypto Asset Service Provider (CASP) license from Luxembourg’s Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF).
The authorization confirms Ripple as fully Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA)-compliant, and the firm's end-to-end regulated crypto payments product is now available to financial institutions, corporates, and businesses across all 30 countries of the European Economic Area.
Ripple said it now holds more than 75 regulatory licenses across the world.
On Monday, July 6, XRP showed a tight trading pattern, moving within a narrow range between short-term support and upper resistance zones. Buyers worked to keep the price above key thresholds, while sellers maintained pressure at higher levels. After a recovery in the market last week, traders are closely watching whether momentum can be sustained.
Support and resistance levels in focusAt the time of writing, XRP was trading at $1.13. On the day, the price edged up by 0.25%, but trading volume fell sharply, dropping 26.75% to $1.24 billion. Over the past seven days, XRP has climbed 8.46%.
Analyst Egrag Crypto noted that the last two weekly candles in XRP have highlighted a fierce battle between buyers and sellers. One candle featured a long upper wick, while the other had a clear lower wick—indicating persistent selling pressure on attempts to push the price higher, while buyers stepped in whenever the price dipped.
Egrag Crypto underscores that the candle body resistance at $1.20 is critical; if this area is surpassed, short-term control could shift back to the buyers.
According to Egrag Crypto, the primary resistance levels are at $1.40, $1.65, and the blue macro region. On the downside, buyers have put up a notable defense at $1.00 and $1.05. The analyst also points to the 200 EMA and the lower trend line as support levels. A break below $0.96 could strengthen bearish scenarios, while the $0.77 to $0.78 range is regarded as a riskier threshold.
Glossary: The 200 EMA is an exponential moving average calculated by giving more weight to the latest 200 periods. It’s widely used in technical analysis to gauge long-term trends and to identify potential support and resistance areas.
LevelSignificance$1.00 to $1.05Nearby support zone$1.20Critical short-term resistance$1.40 to $1.65Upper resistance areas$0.96Key threshold in bearish scenarioShort-term technical outlook: $1.145 takes the spotlightAnother analyst, Diana, observed that after losing the $1.145 level, XRP managed to reclaim it quickly. The price couldn’t hold above the breakout zone near $1.18, but buyers re-entered the market and pushed the pair back above $1.145.
According to Diana, a notable technical reaction formed on the four-hour chart. The RSI indicator has cooled down, dropping from around 80 to the mid-60s. This suggests the previously overheated momentum has eased somewhat, though the overall bullish view remains intact.
Diana emphasized that staying above $1.145 is vital to confirm this level as support, adding that a breakout above $1.18 could swiftly bring the $1.20 resistance level back into focus.
Derivative data shows weakening volumeCoinGlass data indicates that while derivative market trading volume has weakened, overall positioning remains relatively balanced. Futures trading volume has decreased 30.96% to $1.71 billion. Meanwhile, open interest edged up 0.53% to $2.43 billion. The funding rate based on open interest stands at 0.0049%. CoinGlass is a well-known provider of data on crypto derivatives markets.
In the short term, for the direction to become clear, the market needs to maintain the $1.145 support and break through the $1.18 resistance. If the price rises above this band, $1.20 could quickly become the main focal point. On the other hand, a downward break could thrust the $1.05 and $1.00 support levels back into the spotlight.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
Ripple has announced that it has obtained a CASP license under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation. With this authorization, the company can now provide regulated crypto services to financial institutions and businesses across the 30 countries within the European Economic Area.
One license, Europe-wide coverageRipple emphasized that the approval introduces a unified regulatory framework for blockchain-based payment and cryptocurrency services throughout Europe. Instead of acquiring separate licenses for each country, Ripple can now expand its operations with a single authorization covering the entire region.
Ripple confirmed it had received the EU’s CASP license, achieving full compliance with MiCA regulations. The company also stated that it is ready to meet rising European demand for crypto services under this framework.
The CASP license designates Ripple as a crypto asset service provider, requiring it to meet specific obligations set by the MiCA regulation. MiCA serves as the EU’s comprehensive set of rules designed to standardize oversight for the crypto asset market across all member states.
Mini glossary: CASP refers to licensed entities that provide services such as custody, trading, or transfer of crypto assets. MiCA aims to establish a consistent regulatory structure for crypto firms, enabling a harmonized single market across the European Union.
Transition timeline and license harmonizationThe company stated that the full CASP license will become effective after completion of the transition period in June 2026. Once finalized, Ripple will operate crypto services under a single license across the entire European Economic Area.
Before MiCA, crypto companies had to secure approval separately in each country where they operated, resulting in additional costs, lost time, and regulatory complications. The new system dramatically simplifies this process for authorized firms.
Focus on payments, stablecoins, and digital asset settlementRipple’s existing Electronic Money Institution license further complements its new regulatory status. With both authorizations, Ripple will provide digital payments, stablecoin solutions, and digital asset settlement services through a single, regulated platform.
The company is targeting institutions seeking secure, regulation-ready infrastructures for cross-border payments and digital asset settlement. Banks, fintechs, payment service providers, and other financial institutions are expected to benefit from more streamlined access to Ripple’s blockchain platform under this regulatory framework.
MiCA’s passporting mechanism allows Ripple to expand across Europe with a single license, bypassing the need for country-by-country approvals.
Regulatory strategy aligns with rising institutional demandRipple disclosed that it holds over 75 regulatory licenses worldwide. The company continues its approach of securing necessary permissions from financial authorities before entering new markets, underscoring its commitment to compliance.
This development coincides with the European Union’s implementation of crypto regulations amid growing institutional interest in euro-backed stablecoins, cross-border payments, and digital asset settlement solutions. Ripple aims to gain a competitive advantage in the European market with its new CASP license.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
According to on-chain analytics provider CryptoQuant, the Binance XRP Scarcity Index has spiked to approximately 0.77 over the last three days.
This is the highest level of scarcity observed on the platform since mid-2024.
Change in supply balanceCryptoQuant has noted that the sudden data change "reflects a structural shift in the supply balance on Binance, indicating that XRP has become scarcer on the platform than in previous months."
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On-chain data tracking shows that the index experienced a prolonged period of relative stability before launching into a clear upward trend over recent weeks.
Intriguingly, the spot price of XRP has not increased at the same rapid pace as the scarcity metrics.
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This divergence strongly indicates that the current inventory drawdown is not solely a reactionary byproduct of immediate price action.
Instead, the metric points to a decline in the aggregate tradable supply hosted on the platform. Analysts note this change could stem from two internal mechanisms: a drop-off in retail and institutional deposit activity on the exchange as well as an uptick in steady user withdrawals moving assets off-exchanges.
Immediate selling pressuresFrom a technical perspective, a rising exchange scarcity index is frequently interpreted as a healthy sign for an asset’s market structure.
When the aggregate volume of a token available for immediate sale on a liquid platform shrinks, it naturally reduces potential near-term overhead selling pressure. With less localized inventory sitting in order books, the ecosystem becomes less vulnerable to sudden cascading liquidations.
Arthur Hayes called XRP “absolutely nothing” last week. Charles Hoskinson took a swipe at Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse’s approach to regulation. Edo Farina, an analyst and XRP supporter, addressed both in an exclusive interview with Coinpedia.
Hayes: Price Loyalty, Not Substance
Hayes framed his argument around early price gains rather than technology. “You could be like Cardano or Ripple and do absolutely nothing,” he said. “Lie to your people that you’re going to do something about it. However, people got this thing really, really cheap. You allowed them to get rich with you.” The suggestion is that communities built on early wealth creation remain loyal regardless of what a project actually delivers.
Farina acknowledged Hayes’s credentials but questioned the premise. “Arthur Hayes is one of the smartest macro traders in crypto, but trading and building financial infrastructure are two completely different things,” he said. “His portfolio decisions are based on market cycles and liquidity, not necessarily on which technology will underpin the next financial system.”
“If XRP were nothing, we wouldn’t see regulated stablecoins like RLUSD, tokenization initiatives, institutional custody, and major financial players building around the XRPL ecosystem,” Farina said. “Dismissing years of enterprise adoption ignores a lot of evidence.”
Hoskinson vs Garlinghouse
Hoskinson criticised Garlinghouse for accepting imperfect legislation in the name of progress, specifically around the CLARITY Act, paraphrasing his position as wanting to simply get something done. His broader concern is that XRP creates no organic buy demand for holders, making the token dependent on Ripple’s institutional relationships rather than network activity.
Farina attributed the friction to competition. “Cardano, Ripple, Ethereum, Solana, everyone is competing for institutional adoption,” he said. “Brad has taken a very regulatory-first approach, which is not popular with everyone in crypto. Some people believe crypto should remain completely outside the traditional financial system.”
“I don’t see regulation as the enemy,” Farina said. “Institutions won’t move trillions of dollars through anonymous protocols with no legal clarity.”
The Underlying Divide
The criticism from both men reflects a wider disagreement about what crypto is for. Ripple’s approach is to work within existing financial infrastructure rather than replace it, which appeals to banks and asset managers but frustrates those who entered crypto for different reasons.
“That is less exciting for crypto purists but much more attractive for banks, governments and asset managers. Institutional capital generally follows legal certainty,” Farina said.
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Ripple (XRP) sustains losses on Monday, edging lower toward the short-term $1.10 support. XRP failed to sustain momentum above $1.20 on the previous day, prompting profit-taking amid a broader crypto market drawdown attributed to mild inflows into related digital investment products, declining retail participation and macroeconomic uncertainty.
XRP retail activity slows amid mild capital inflowsRetail participation in the XRP derivatives market remains generally low despite the mild institutional inflows through spot Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs). CoinGlass data show that perpetual Open Interest (OI) has declined to 2.12 billion XRP on Monday, from 2.14 billion XRP the previous day.
A wider scope highlights a steep drawdown from 2.38 billion XRP recorded on June 23, while further cooling could limit the token’s recovery potential.
XRP Futures OI | Source: CoinGlassMeanwhile, interest in XRP spot ETFs has held steady, outperforming other major assets such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), with nearly $12 million in inflows last week. With nine straight weeks of inflows, interest in XRP-related digital investment products remains intact despite the headwinds and broader risk-off sentiment.
Cumulative inflows hold steady at $1.49 billion while net assets under management average $988 million, according to SoSoValue data.
XRP ETF flows | Source: SoSoValuePrice analysis: XRP slides, aiming for $1.10 supportXRP pair remains confined within a broader downward parallel channel and trades well below the 50-day, 100-day and 200-day Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs) at $1.18, $1.29 and $1.50 respectively, which keeps the near-term bias decisively bearish.
At the same time, the remittance token holds above the Bollinger Bands' middle boundary at $1.10, suggesting some short-term stabilization, but the sequence of descending long-term EMAs hints that rallies are more likely to be sold than sustained.
Still, a mildly positive Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) histogram on the daily chart shows that XRP has the potential to rebound if traders reengage and defend the $1.10 psychological support.
XRP/USDT daily chartInitial resistance is aligned with the upper boundary of the active downward channel near $1.17, followed by the 50-day EMA at $1.18 and the upper Bollinger Band around $1.20. A daily close above these clustered barriers would be needed to ease the prevailing downside pressure and open the door toward the 100-day EMA near $1.29 and the 200-day EMA around $1.50. Looking down, immediate support is seen at the Bollinger midline around $1.10, ahead of the lower Bollinger Band near $1.01. A deeper deterioration toward the channel floor around $0.84 cannot be ruled out if sellers regain control below the current pivot area.
(This article was created with the help of an Artificial Intelligence tool and reviewed by an editor. Know more.)
Open Interest, funding rate FAQs Higher Open Interest is associated with higher liquidity and new capital inflow to the market. This is considered the equivalent of increase in efficiency and the ongoing trend continues. When Open Interest decreases, it is considered a sign of liquidation in the market, investors are leaving and the overall demand for an asset is on a decline, fueling a bearish sentiment among investors.
Funding fees bridge the difference between spot prices and prices of futures contracts of an asset by increasing liquidation risks faced by traders. A consistently high and positive funding rate implies there is a bullish sentiment among market participants and there is an expectation of a price hike. A consistently negative funding rate for an asset implies a bearish sentiment, indicating that traders expect the cryptocurrency’s price to fall and a bearish trend reversal is likely to occur.
Bitcoin climbed back above $63,000 on Monday and remains unaffected by Michael Saylor’s announcement today. The recovery was supported by a return to positive spot ETF inflows, helping to lift market sentiment out of the extreme fear zone.
Notable Statistics:
Coinglass data shows 90,220 traders were liquidated in the past 24 hours for $405.86 million. SoSoValue data shows net inflows of $221.72 million from spot Bitcoin ETFs on Thursday. Spot Ethereum ETFs saw net inflows of $29.08 million. In the past 24 hours, top gainers include Pyth Network, DeXe and LayerZero. Notable Developments:
Trader Notes:
Crypto chart analyst Ali Martinez explained Bitcoin has triggered a TD Sequential sell signal, indicating potential short-term downside after Michael Saylor’s company, Strategy, reportedly sold $215 million worth of BTC.
"Not exactly the combination bulls want to see," he added.
Michael van de Poppe noted that Bitcoin has made a strong rebound from its recent support zone, matching the expected bullish setup.
After a shallow retest, the outlook remains positive, with the next likely target being the $67,000–68,000 resistance area, where price could sweep liquidity above the previous high before determining the next move.
Trader KillaXBT argues that expecting much lower Bitcoin prices is misguided because each Bitcoin cycle has generally seen shallower pullbacks than the previous one.
Relying on a specific historical price target assumes the market will repeat past patterns exactly, but the trend in diminishing retracements suggests market behavior is evolving, making that assumption less reliable.
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Dogecoin's most recent attempt at recovery is beginning to show signs of weakness as the meme coin finds it difficult to build up enough momentum to maintain a significant increase. Although DOGE recovered some of its recent losses after rising from the local bottom close to the $0.07 zone, the larger technical picture indicates that the rally lacks the strength required for a trend reversal. Volume is the most obvious problem.
Even though DOGE has seen a slight increase in recent trading sessions, trading activity is still down. Historically, successful recoveries in Dogecoin have been accompanied by a notable increase in volume, signaling strong buyer participation.
DOGE/USDT Chart by TradingViewHowever, this time, the market seems hesitant. The latest green candles have formed on relatively weak participation, raising concerns that the move is little more than a temporary relief rally. Technically speaking, the structure is still very negative. On the chart, DOGE is trading below every significant moving average.
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Even if DOGE manages to push higher in the short term, it will face substantial selling pressure around the $0.08–$0.09 range where several key moving averages converge. The overall trend is another red flag.
Dogecoin has continuously formed lower highs and lower lows since its May peak, which continues to be the classic definition of a downtrend. That structure is still valid despite the recent bounce. The market is still under bearish control until DOGE is able to reclaim significant resistance levels and set a higher high.
The indicator is still below levels that are usually linked to significant bullish momentum, though. This implies that although buyers have avoided another sudden collapse, they have not yet shown the conviction required to propel a more significant recovery. As of right now, Dogecoin's upside attempt seems futile. The current move runs the risk of fading into another lower high within the larger bearish trend in the absence of a sizable increase in buying volume and a break above important resistance levels.
XRP's RSI divergenceAs a significant RSI divergence starts to appear on the daily chart, XRP is exhibiting one of the first significant technical gains in weeks. Although the price recently dropped to a new local low close to the $1.05 area, momentum indicators did not support the decline, resulting in a bullish divergence that traders frequently observe as a sign of an impending reversal.
This shows that even though sellers were able to drive the asset to a new short-term low, bearish momentum is waning. Such setups often occur close to exhaustion points, where selling pressure begins to wane, but they do not ensure an instant rally. The problem for XRP is that the overall trend is still overwhelmingly negative. The asset is still trading below all major moving averages, despite the recent rebound.
XRP/USDT Chart by TradingViewThe 100-day and 200-day moving averages are still much higher, but the 50-day EMA is currently serving as the closest dynamic resistance. A crucial test for bulls has already been created by the recovery attempt, which has brought XRP into contact with the declining 50 EMA. The bullish divergence narrative would be strengthened by a successful breakout above this level, which might pave the way to the $1.20-$1.30 region, where the 100-day EMA and earlier support-turned-resistance levels converge.
Nonetheless, volume remains a concern. In contrast to significant trend reversals, which typically start with aggressive accumulation, XRP's recovery has happened during comparatively normal trading activity.
Although there is still little proof of significant institutional or widespread participation, buyers have demonstrated a willingness to defend the market. The RSI itself has already recovered above the neutral 50 threshold, reflecting improving momentum conditions.
The strongest bullish signal on XRP's chart at the moment is the notable RSI divergence. However, a full-scale reversal will require confirmation through a sustained breakout above key resistance levels on strong volume.
Bitcoin's comeback is shallow for now Although Bitcoin has made a respectable comeback from its recent lows around $59,000, the most recent price action indicates that it might be too soon to declare it a true recovery. While bulls have managed to halt the aggressive sell-off that dominated the market in June, the broader technical structure still favors caution rather than optimism.
Nonetheless, there are a number of important resistance zones. Most notably, the 50-day and 100-day moving averages, which both continue to slope downward and support the bearish trend, remain above the current price of Bitcoin.
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Bitcoin saw a dramatic liquidation event that wiped out weeks' worth of gains after breaking away from the rising trendline that had supported the April–May advance. These actions do not always indicate a trend reversal, but they frequently result in brief rallies when oversold conditions return to normal.
A bullish interpretation is likewise not supported by volume. The strongest trading activity in recent weeks occurred during the sell-off itself, indicating aggressive distribution rather than accumulation.
The current recovery has developed on declining volume, suggesting that buyers lack strong conviction. Momentum indicators provide conflicting signals. The RSI has recovered from oversold territory and is approaching neutral levels, which confirms that selling pressure has eased.
However, the indicator remains far from the levels typically associated with strong bullish momentum. To put it another way, the market has stabilized but hasn't yet shown clear signs of strength. For Bitcoin to establish a more credible recovery, bulls need to reclaim the 50-day EMA near $63,000 and then challenge the 100-day EMA around $66,000.
Bitcoin's rally looks more like a technical bounce within a larger downtrend than the start of a new bull run until those levels are recovered.
Ethereum price outlook strengthened Monday as traders watched Vitalik Buterin’s latest roadmap comments. Buterin said Lean Ethereum will unfold over three to four years. The plan represents a significant post-The Merge protocol rebuild.
Bitcoin price hovered above $63,000 following a recovery last week as ETH was approaching the level of 1,800 resistance. XRP price showed strength after breaking its falling channel.
Ethereum Prepares for Biggest Upgrade Since The Merge, Vitalik Says Vitalik Buterin called Lean Ethereum the next significant step of the network. He contrasted its size with The Merge, which transformed Ethereum a consensus system in 2022. The new roadmap does not consist of an upgrade. Rather it is a sequence of protocol modifications over a number of years.
Buterin indicated that almost all significant protocol components were replacable. The idea is to ensure Ethereum is quicker, more confidential, and resistant to future quantum hazards. Developers also desire the network to enhance without disrupting existing applications. This fact is important as Ethereum is compatible with various wallets, exchanges, DeFi apps, and layer-2 networks.
BREAKING: Ethereum is preparing for its biggest upgrade since The Merge, per Vitalik.
This means Ethereum will rebuild nearly every core part of itself over the next 3 to 4 years, making it faster, more private, and quantum-safe, without breaking any apps built on it. pic.twitter.com/7CYMHHrqkc
— Ash Crypto (@AshCrypto) July 6, 2026
The roadmap followed talks among Ethereum researchers in Berlin in late June. It also builds on the draft strawmap introduced earlier this year. That plan outlines several upgrades through 2029. The roadmap is now considered a guarantee to Ethereum by market watchers.
Analyst Predicts ETH Price Could Rally 10% If Support Holds Crypto analyst said Ethereum price has reclaimed its February 2026 lows after its latest rebound. He said future ETH outlook must hold this level to support another 8% to 10% rally. This is an area that now has to be defended by buyers to maintain short-term momentum.
$ETH has reclaimed the Feb 2026 lows.
Ethereum needs to hold above this level for another 8%-10% rally. pic.twitter.com/gOdC3fO9cJ
— Ted (@TedPillows) July 6, 2026
The chart also indicated resistance at around $1,800 and $1,873, which could determine the next Ethereum action. The potential breakout would redirect the focus towards the $2,000 zone. Nonetheless, the inability to hold the reclaimed low could undermine the bullish formation. Traders can then observe the lower demand region at about $1,555 in the event.
Ethereum Price Analysis The ETH price traded at $1,757 four-hour chart. Ether price fell by 0.80%, and the trading day started around $1,775. The move came after ETH failed to hold above the $1,800 resistance line. The nearest support is the $1,700 line in case the selling pressure persists.
There was also less buying strength indicated by the momentum indicators. The RSI stood at 66. This suggests ETH still holds positive momentum, but buyers have lost some control.
Source: Tradingview The MACD also indicated that following the recent recovery there was a cooling trend. Its histogram became negative and exhibited slower upward movement. To regain a stronger bullish trend, ETH might require a clean break of over $1,800.
Ether ETH derivatives data indicated that there was a mixed trading with a drop of 0.99% volume at $27.23 billion. Nevertheless, open interest increased 0.50% to 24.53 billion, an indication of new positioning in the futures markets.
Source: Coinglass data Options activity looked stronger, with volume jumping 8.94% to $486.14 million. Options open interest also climbed 1.12% to $4.09 billion. The numbers indicate that the exposure of traders did not decrease despite slight pullback in the levels of total volumes.
Monday’s 3% rise in XRP looked simple on the surface, but heavy volume told a deeper story. The token pushed decisively past the $1.14 resistance level, only to encounter a wall of selling near $1.16, according to the market update. Now the same $1.14 level that had capped prices is repurposed as a critical support floor, putting short-term traders on watch.
The volume accompanying the breakout suggested genuine participation rather than a low-liquidity spike. In summer’s thinner order books, such moves can be exaggerated, but the fact that sellers immediately emerged at $1.16 indicates overhead supply remains. Traders who missed the initial move are now waiting to see if $1.14 can hold a retest. The token had spent the previous two weeks in a tight consolidation, making Monday’s push the first real test of range-bound exhaustion. If the level holds, the breakout gains credibility. A failure would likely send XRP back toward the $1.10 area where previous consolidation occurred.
Altcoin Momentum Builds XRP’s push came amid a patch of renewed strength across the altcoin landscape. Earlier this year, tokens like SUI saw explosive rallies on the back of institutional catalysts—SUI surged 18% when a Nasdaq-linked staking deal and fintech integration hit the tape. More recently, the weekly leaderboard has been dominated by double-digit altcoin gains, reinforcing a rotation toward projects with tangible narratives, as seen in the week’s top gainers. While XRP’s 3% move is modest by comparison, the technical breakout on volume puts it in a different category—one where the chart, not just news, drives decision-making.
Still, no token escapes the long shadow of regulation, and XRP is no exception. The SEC lawsuit years ago redefined how traders price risk premiums into the token. Now, with banking interests pushing to derail a major U.S. crypto bill just days before a Senate vote, the regulatory mood could shift quickly. A bill that provides clarity for digital assets would likely be a tailwind for tokens caught in legal limbo, and XRP’s support test may be short-lived if political headwinds intensify.
The Support Test For now, the immediate question is technical: will $1.14 hold? The level served as resistance multiple times in recent weeks, so a sustained close above it would signal that buyers are absorbing the selling pressure around $1.16. Traders are watching the four-hour and daily closes. A clean hold could invite momentum chasers and potentially set up a run toward $1.20—though any move would likely need a fresh catalyst to break the current range.
The uncertainty is palpable. Heavy volume on a breakout followed by rejection often leads to a choppy period where neither side wins convincingly. If XRP slips back below $1.14 within the next couple of sessions, the breakout narrative weakens and the token could drift back into its multi-week trading range. Conversely, a successful support test backed by declining sell orders near the highs would mark a structural shift in the order book. Until then, the market is left parsing every tick, waiting to see whether the breakout was a false start or the beginning of a more durable uptrend.
AUTHOR
Brenda is a writer with three years of experience specializing in cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence and emerging technologies. She graduated from the University of Mombasa with a degree in Psychology. She has worked at Cryptopolitan and Blockchain Reporter.
While Bitcoin and altcoins continue their sideways movement, developments related to MICA, one of the most talked-about topics in the cryptocurrency market, continue to unfold.
The latest news comes from Ripple. The company behind the altcoin XRP announced today that it has received a Crypto Asset Service Provider (CASP) license in Luxembourg under the European Union’s Crypto Asset Markets (MiCA) regulation.
In this context, Ripple announced that it has received full Crypto Asset Service Provider (CASP) authorization from Luxembourg’s CSSF under the EU’s MiCA framework.
This approval follows its preliminary authorization in June and allows Ripple to offer regulated crypto services in all 30 countries of the European Economic Area.
Cassie Craddock, Ripple’s General Manager for the UK and Europe, stated, “This CASP authorization means Ripple is entering the post-MiCA era fully compliant and scalable. The organizations we work with across Europe want to develop digital asset services alongside regulated partners, and Ripple is licensed and ready to meet that demand.”
Ripple also stated that it holds more than 75 regulatory licenses globally.
It’s official: Ripple has received its EU CASP license. We are now fully MiCA-compliant and ready to meet growing European crypto demand https://t.co/I9GRgvfGzH
— Ripple (@Ripple) July 6, 2026
Binance Failed to Obtain a License! In contrast, Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has been unable to obtain a license under the European Union (EU) MICA. As a result, Binance is suspending its trading services in some European countries, including France, due to its lack of a MICA license.
In this context, Binance suspended its spot and margin trading services for users in affected countries starting from May 1st, when the MICA regulations fully came into effect. Currently, users can withdraw cryptocurrencies but cannot make new transactions.
MICA is legislation introduced to create a unified regulatory framework for crypto assets across the EU, and in principle, unlicensed exchanges cannot provide trading services in the region. In this regard, major global exchanges, including Binance, are undergoing licensing processes to meet regulatory requirements.
*This is not investment advice.
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Although XRP has slowed in its recent price rally, stabilizing around the $1.13–$1.14 price range, crypto market traders believe there are still further rallies ahead.
With XRP back in the spotlight, traders on crypto prediction platform Kalshi are pricing in a further price rally for XRP after enduring several months of extreme volatility.
The data shows that 33% of Kalshi traders have forecast that XRP could climb to $1.30 before the end of July as XRP remains steady on the upside.
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XRP retains bullish sentiment The bullish XRP prediction from traders on Kalshi has caught the attention of investors as it is coming amid renewed momentum for XRP.
After dropping as low as $1.01 during the previous week, XRP has rapidly climbed to around $1.14 as of the time of writing, posting an impressive 8.32% gain over the past week.
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The XRP price rally started when the new month began, igniting a fresh surge of bullish sentiment among investors who believe that the $1.30 prediction could just be the start.
Analysts have also mentioned that the recent rally could be an early sign that XRP is attempting to break out from the heavy volatility that has negatively impacted its price movements for several months.
History confirms further XRP rally in JulyApart from the prediction from Kalshi traders, historical data has also backed the forecast, as past yearly performance records suggest that July has often been one of XRP's more favorable months.
Since 2020, XRP has continued to deliver strong July gains, including returns of 35%, 31.2%, 26.3%, and nearly 60% over the past years.
With XRP already breaking out of the prolonged market volatility seen in the past few months, the XRP community strongly believes that there are more price rallies to witness this month.
On the first day of every month, one billion XRP leaves a set of locked contracts on the XRP Ledger, and every month traders argue about what it means. Here is the full machinery: why the escrow was created, how the ledger enforces it, where the released tokens actually go, and how to read the unlock without being fooled by the headline number.
At around 07:30 UTC on July 1, 2026, on-chain trackers flagged three transfers on the XRP Ledger: 200 million XRP, then 300 million, then 500 million, exactly one billion tokens worth roughly $1.04 billion at the time. Nobody at Ripple pressed a button that morning. The release was executed by the ledger itself, under contracts written in December 2017, on a schedule that has repeated on the first of the month for years.
The event has become a monthly ritual. Whale Alert posts the transfers, headlines announce that a billion dollars of XRP has been unlocked, newer holders panic, and veterans point out that most of the tokens will be locked right back up within days. Both camps are reacting to the same mechanism, and most people in both camps could not explain how it actually works: what an escrow is at the ledger level, why Ripple built one, how much XRP truly enters circulation each month, or how long the whole arrangement can continue.
The escrow also sits at the center of XRP’s sharpest ongoing argument. When Ripple chief executive Brad Garlinghouse attacked Strategy’s Bitcoin financing in late June, saying financial engineering does not drive long-term value, critics immediately pointed at the escrow: Ripple funds itself, in part, by selling tokens from this very system every month. Understanding the mechanism is now a prerequisite for understanding the debate.
This guide covers the escrow end to end: the 2017 problem it was built to solve, the transaction types that enforce it, the monthly release and relock cycle, the destinations of the sold tokens, the supply math, the price question, the criticism, and how to track all of it yourself.
The problem the escrow was built to solve When the XRP Ledger launched in 2012, all 100 billion XRP that will ever exist were created at once. There is no mining and no staking issuance; the full supply existed on day one. The founders gifted the majority of it to the company that became Ripple, which used sales of the token to fund operations, partnerships, and ecosystem development.
That arrangement created a permanent shadow over the market. Through 2017, Ripple still held more than half of all XRP in ordinary accounts it could spend at will. Every rally ran into the same objection: nothing stopped the company from selling tens of billions of tokens into strength whenever it chose. The overhang was not hypothetical selling; it was the unlimited possibility of selling, which no buyer could price.
Ripple’s answer, announced in mid-2017 and executed that December, was to lock 55 billion XRP, then worth a dominant share of its holdings, into a chain of escrow contracts enforced by the ledger itself. The contracts were structured as 55 monthly tranches of one billion XRP each, releasing on the first day of each month. Whatever the company did not use in a given month would be returned to new escrows queued at the back of the line.
The design converted an open-ended threat into a bounded, published schedule. After December 2017, the maximum amount of new XRP that Ripple could bring into circulation in any month was one billion tokens, and everyone could verify the limit on-chain. The company gave up flexibility to buy credibility, the same trade a central bank makes when it publishes a policy rule, or a startup makes when it puts founder shares behind a vesting cliff.
It is worth being precise about what the escrow did not do. It did not reduce Ripple’s holdings by a single token, and it did not promise that the company would stop selling. It capped the pace. The distinction between locked supply and destroyed supply still drives confusion today, and it is the root of most bad takes about the monthly unlock.
What an escrow is on the XRP Ledger The escrow is not a legal agreement or a corporate pledge. It is a native feature of the XRP Ledger protocol, which means the lockup is enforced by the same consensus rules that validate every payment on the network. Ripple could not release the tokens early even if it wanted to, short of convincing the validator network to change the protocol itself.
Three transaction types run the system. EscrowCreate locks an amount of XRP into a ledger entry with a source account, a destination account, and release conditions. EscrowFinish delivers the locked XRP to the destination once the conditions are met. EscrowCancel returns the XRP to the source if the escrow expires unfinished. The conditions can include a time before which the escrow cannot be finished, a time before which it cannot be cancelled, and optionally a cryptographic condition that must be satisfied for release.
Ripple’s supply escrows use the time lock: each tranche simply cannot be finished before the first day of its assigned month. Once that date passes, an EscrowFinish transaction moves the billion tokens to Ripple’s operational accounts, which is what the trackers flag every month. The tranches often arrive in pieces, like July’s 200, 300, and 500 million splits, because the original escrows were created as multiple entries.
The receiving accounts are secured with the ledger’s native multisignature scheme, which requires several keys to authorize spending and lets individual signers rotate credentials without moving the funds. That matters because a system holding tens of billions of dollars in value would otherwise be a single point of catastrophic failure.
Escrow was not built only for Ripple’s treasury. The feature was designed for conditional payments and cross-ledger settlement through the Interledger Protocol, and the same primitive now underpins more ambitious plumbing on the network, part of the same toolkit that is turning the ledger into a venue for institutional finance. Ripple’s supply schedule is simply the largest and most famous use of a general-purpose tool.
The monthly cycle: release, spend, relock The headline event, one billion XRP unlocked, is only the first step of a three-part cycle, and it is the least informative one.
Step one is the release. On the first of the month, the time lock on that month’s tranches expires and the tokens move to Ripple’s accounts. This is the moment Whale Alert broadcasts and headlines report. At July 2026 prices the billion tokens were worth about $1.04 billion; at the 2018 peak the same monthly release was worth more than three billion dollars. The dollar figure changes, the token count does not.
Step two is allocation. Ripple decides how much of the billion it actually needs for the month: sales to institutional partners, liquidity for payment corridors, ecosystem investments, and operating expenses. Historically this has been a minority of the release.
Step three is the relock. Within hours to days, Ripple returns the unused majority, typically 600 to 800 million tokens and in some months more, to fresh escrow contracts queued behind the existing schedule. In December 2025, for example, roughly 70 percent of the unlocked tokens went straight back into escrow. The relock transactions are just as public as the release, and experienced observers watch them far more closely than the unlock itself, because the difference between the two numbers is the only figure that matters.
That difference, the net release, has generally run between 200 and 300 million XRP per month across recent cycles. At current prices that is in the range of 200 to 350 million dollars of potential monthly supply, some of which goes to buyers who never touch an exchange. Back-of-envelope, a net release at that pace adds roughly four to six percent to circulating supply per year, a real but bounded inflation rate that the market can model years in advance.
The relock mechanics also explain why the escrow has lasted far beyond its original 55 months. Every returned token extends the queue, so the schedule keeps rolling forward. What was designed as a 55-month runway has become a self-extending conveyor that is still running nearly a decade later.
Where the released XRP actually goes The tokens Ripple keeps each month flow into a handful of destinations, and the mix has shifted with the company’s strategy and its legal history.
The most consequential category is institutional sales. Ripple sells XRP directly to financial institutions and market makers, historically to seed liquidity for its cross-border payment product, where XRP serves as a bridge asset between currencies. These direct sales were the exact activity at issue in the SEC lawsuit: the 2023 ruling found that Ripple’s institutional sales of XRP were unregistered securities offerings, while sales on exchanges to the public were not. The escrow itself was never the legal problem, but it is the reservoir those institutional sales draw from.
The second category is ecosystem funding. Grants to XRP Ledger developers, investments in companies building on the network, regional funds, and partnership incentives are routinely denominated in XRP. The company’s broader 2026 strategy, spanning payments, custody, stablecoins, and its role in projects like the Open USD consortium alongside RLUSD, is financed by a treasury in which escrowed XRP remains the largest asset.
The third category is ordinary corporate operations. Salaries, acquisitions, legal bills, and expansion are paid, directly or indirectly, from the same pool. Ripple has spent heavily on acquisitions in custody and prime brokerage, and token sales remain a funding source a conventional company would have to replace with equity or debt.
One thing Ripple does not do with the escrow is buy XRP back. The company runs buyback programs for its own private shares, not for the token. Community proposals to burn the remaining escrowed supply surface regularly, and Ripple has declined them; chief technology officer emeritus David Schwartz has publicly dismissed the idea that a burn would guarantee a lasting price rally.
The honest framing is that the escrow is a corporate treasury with a public spending speed limit. The tokens fund a company, and the schedule tells the market exactly how fast the funding can flow.
The supply math in 2026 The numbers as of mid-2026 look like this. Total XRP supply stands just below 100 billion, at roughly 99.99 billion, because transaction fees on the ledger are permanently destroyed; about 14 million XRP have been burned since 2012, a rounding error against total supply. Circulating supply is around 62 billion tokens. Ripple’s remaining escrowed stash is estimated near 38 billion XRP, with additional tokens held in its operational accounts.
Divide the escrow by the net release rate and you get the question every long-term holder eventually asks: when does it run out? At 200 to 300 million net tokens per month, current estimates put depletion roughly nine years out if present patterns hold. Schwartz has pushed back on attempts to name an exact year, arguing that no date can be pinned down because depletion depends entirely on how much of each monthly billion the company keeps versus relocks, which in turn depends on operational needs that nobody can forecast a decade ahead.
Both sides of that exchange are correct. The mechanical arithmetic gives a horizon in the mid-2030s; the caveat is that the divisor is a management decision renewed every month. A bull market that lets Ripple fund itself with fewer tokens stretches the runway. A spending surge shortens it. The escrow bounds the maximum pace at twelve billion tokens per year, but the actual pace floats.
The end state is worth thinking about now, because it inverts today’s dynamic. Every month the escrow shrinks, Ripple’s future maximum sell pressure shrinks with it, and the day the last tranche releases, the overhang that the escrow was built to manage is simply gone. Whether that is bullish supply exhaustion or the loss of a disciplined funding machine that kept the company honest is one of the more interesting open questions in XRP’s long-term story, and it gets one month closer on the first of every month.
Does the unlock move the price? The evidence for a reliable unlock effect is thin, and the reason is the schedule’s whole point: an event that everyone can see coming years in advance is an event the market can price in advance.
The release date never surprises anyone. The token amount never surprises anyone. The only genuine information in the monthly cycle is the relock figure, which reveals how much Ripple kept, and even that varies within a well-known band. Short-term traders do report a pattern of mild pressure and elevated volume around the first of the month, a one to three percent wobble is commonly cited, but disentangling that from ordinary volatility in an asset that moves five percent on quiet days is close to impossible.
The July 2026 unlock is a useful case study. The billion tokens released on July 1 landed in a market where XRP had just closed its worst month in recent memory, down nearly 20 percent in June to a 19-month low near $1.01, before recovering to trade around $1.04. Headlines framed the unlock as another weight on a drowning asset. Yet the same week, spot XRP ETFs in the United States were extending a multi-week streak of net inflows even as Bitcoin funds bled, meaning regulated institutional demand was absorbing supply while the escrow released it. The unlock was the loudest supply story and close to the least informative one.
The deeper lesson is the same one that applies to reading ETF creation and redemption data: headline gross numbers mislead, and net figures matter. A billion unlocked is a gross number. Six to eight hundred million relocked is the offset. Two to three hundred million net, sold gradually, partly off-exchange, into a market that trades more than a billion dollars of XRP daily, is the real supply event, and it is modest.
None of that makes the unlock irrelevant. It makes it a scheduled, bounded, transparent form of sell pressure, which is precisely what it was designed to be.
The criticism: a company-shaped hole in a decentralized asset The escrow solves the dumping problem and creates a philosophical one. XRP is the only major cryptocurrency whose monthly supply expansion is decided in a corporate treasury meeting, and critics have never let the point go.
The centralization objection is straightforward. Bitcoin’s issuance is set by an algorithm no company controls. XRP’s effective issuance is set by Ripple’s monthly relock decision. The schedule is transparent and capped, but it is still one firm’s choice, and holders are structurally downstream of that firm’s funding needs. For skeptics, that makes XRP less a decentralized asset and more a corporate instrument with a public float.
The sell-pressure objection got fresh oxygen in June 2026, when Garlinghouse attacked Strategy’s model of issuing preferred stock to buy Bitcoin, calling the slide in its preferred shares a damning indictment and insisting that utility, not financial engineering, drives long-term value. Traders pounced on the symmetry: Ripple funds itself by selling a token it created, from an escrow it controls, into the market it champions. One widely shared critique called the two firms two giants with the same model, each leaning on the asset it defends. The comparison is not perfect, Ripple sells an asset it was granted at genesis while Strategy borrows against one it bought, but the shared feature is real: both companies are structural sellers or leveraged holders of the asset their shareholders and communities want to rise.
There is also a subtler critique: the escrow’s existence proves the concern it was built to address. Companies with no power to crash their own asset do not need to lock 55 billion tokens to reassure anyone. The escrow is both the remedy and the permanent reminder of XRP’s concentrated origins.
Defenders answer that every funding model leans on something, that a published on-chain speed limit is more honest than the opaque treasury sales common across crypto, and that a decade of relock discipline is a track record, not a promise. Both readings fit the same facts, which is why the argument never ends.
How XRP’s schedule compares with other supply systems Placing the escrow next to other issuance mechanisms clarifies what is genuinely unusual about it.
Bitcoin’s supply comes from mining rewards on a halving schedule fixed in the protocol. No entity decides anything; the only discretionary sellers are miners, and when their economics break, the result is the kind of forced miner selling that hit records in early 2026. Bitcoin’s sell pressure is distributed across an industry; XRP’s scheduled component is concentrated in one company but capped by contract.
Ethereum mints new ETH as staking rewards and burns a portion of fees, so net issuance floats with network activity around a low rate. Again, no single seller dominates, and no schedule exists to publish.
The closest relatives to Ripple’s escrow are found in token projects, not commodity-style chains. Foundation treasuries, investor unlock cliffs, and team vesting schedules all release supply on calendars, and unlock-tracking has become a trading discipline of its own. XRP’s version differs in three ways: it is enforced by the base protocol instead of a smart contract or a legal agreement, it has run without a missed or altered month since 2017, and it is refilled by relocking, which makes it self-extending instead of finite by design.
The comparison cuts both ways. Against venture-backed tokens with cliff unlocks that dump double-digit percentages of supply in a day, XRP’s smooth billion-per-month drip with a 70 percent refund rate is conservative. Against Bitcoin’s zero-discretion issuance, it is corporate management. Where an investor lands depends on which reference class they reach for, and both are legitimate.
Tracking the escrow yourself Everything described above is public, and verifying it takes minutes.
The release transactions appear on any XRP Ledger explorer on the first of each month, flagged by monitoring services like Whale Alert within moments. Explorers such as Bithomp and XRPScan label Ripple’s known accounts, so the escrow finishes and the subsequent movements are easy to follow without any special tooling.
The relock is the transaction that deserves the attention. Within roughly 24 to 72 hours of the release, look for large EscrowCreate transactions from Ripple’s accounts returning tokens to new time locks. Subtract that figure from one billion and you have the month’s true net release, the only number in the cycle with information in it. A month where Ripple relocks 850 million reads very differently from a month where it relocks 550 million, and the difference never makes headlines.
Ripple also publishes quarterly reports summarizing its XRP sales and holdings, which provide the company’s own accounting of what the on-chain data shows. Third-party dashboards aggregate escrow balances and project depletion timelines; treat the projections as arithmetic, not prophecy, for the reasons Schwartz gave.
A practical checklist for reading any unlock month: confirm the gross release, wait for the relock, compute the net, compare it with the trailing average of 200 to 300 million, and check whether demand-side flows, exchange volumes, and, since late 2025, ETF creations look adequate to absorb it. If the net is in the normal band, the unlock told you nothing new. If it deviates sharply, that is a real signal about Ripple’s cash needs, and it will be visible on-chain before anyone writes it up.
Frequently asked questions What is the XRP escrow? The XRP escrow is a set of time-locked contracts on the XRP Ledger holding tokens that belong to Ripple. Created in December 2017 with 55 billion XRP, the contracts release a maximum of one billion tokens on the first day of each month, and the ledger protocol itself enforces the lock.
How much XRP is unlocked each month? The contracts release up to one billion XRP monthly, usually in several tranches on the first of the month. Ripple typically returns 600 to 800 million of those tokens to new escrow contracts within days, so the net amount entering circulation has generally been 200 to 300 million XRP per month.
Why did Ripple lock its XRP in escrow? Before 2017, Ripple held tens of billions of XRP in spendable accounts, and the market feared the company could sell unlimited amounts at any time. Locking 55 billion tokens behind a published monthly schedule capped the maximum pace of sales and made the limit verifiable on-chain.
Does the monthly unlock crash the XRP price? There is little evidence of a consistent price effect. The schedule is known years in advance, most unlocked tokens are relocked, and the net release is small relative to daily trading volume. Short-term volatility around the date exists but is hard to separate from XRP’s normal price swings.
How much XRP is left in escrow? As of mid-2026, estimates place the remaining escrowed balance near 38 billion XRP. The figure declines by whatever Ripple keeps each month and is publicly visible on XRP Ledger explorers that track the company’s escrow accounts.
When will the XRP escrow run out? At recent net release rates, projections cluster around nine more years, but no exact date is possible. Depletion depends on how much of each monthly billion Ripple relocks, a decision the company makes month by month based on its operational needs.
Can Ripple unlock the escrowed XRP early? No. The time locks are enforced by the XRP Ledger protocol, not by a company policy. An escrow cannot be finished before its release date under the network’s consensus rules, so early access would require a protocol change accepted by the validator network.
What happens to unlocked XRP that Ripple does not use? Unused tokens are placed into new escrow contracts queued at the back of the schedule, a step visible on-chain as EscrowCreate transactions in the days after each release. This relocking is why the escrow has lasted far beyond its original 55-month design.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Digital asset markets are volatile and you can lose your entire investment. Always do your own research. Information current as of July 6, 2026.
TLDR A $1,000 investment in the first spot XRP ETF is now worth about $457. Brazil’s XRPH11 has declined 54.3% since its April 2025 launch. U.S. spot XRP ETFs now manage about $1.05 billion in assets. XRP traded near $1.14 after gaining 8.5% over the past week. A $1,000 investment in the spot XRP ETF launched in Brazil now holds an estimated value of about $457. The fund has lost more than half its value since its April 2025 debut. Meanwhile, XRP traded near $1.14 after posting an 8.5% weekly gain.
Brazil’s Early XRP ETF Records Sharp Decline Brazil introduced the first regulated spot XRP ETF on April 25, 2025, through Hashdex’s XRPH11 fund. The product launched with about $40 million in assets under management. It invested almost all holdings in physical XRP.
The spot XRP ETF tracks the “Nasdaq XRP Reference Price Index” through direct XRP exposure. The fund started trading at higher levels before entering a sustained decline. As of July 3, XRPH11 traded at 9.14 Brazilian reals, or about $1.74.
The spot XRP ETF has declined 54.3% since launch based on market data. Therefore, a $1,000 investment has fallen to about $457. Assets under management also dropped to roughly $22 million to $25 million.
U.S. Products Expanded the XRP ETF Market Brazil’s spot XRP ETF remained relatively small within the global crypto exchange-traded product market. The country represented less than 1% of worldwide crypto ETP assets. Consequently, the fund generated limited buying pressure for XRP.
The spot XRP ETF market changed after several U.S. products launched in November 2025. Funds from Canary Capital, Bitwise, Franklin Templeton, Grayscale, 21Shares, and REX-Osprey entered the market. Those products attracted substantially larger investment flows.
The spot XRP ETF market in the United States now manages about $1.05 billion in assets. Collectively, those funds hold nearly 971 million XRP. Combined net inflows have exceeded $1.4 billion since launch, including $118 million during May 2026.
XRP Price Stayed Within a Narrow Trading Range Canada also expanded the spot XRP ETF market through the Purpose XRP ETF. The fund launched during June 2025 and now manages about 72 million Canadian dollars. That product increased regulated investment access outside the United States.
The broader XRP market still traded within a narrow range despite growing institutional participation. Prices moved mostly between $1.15 and $1.40 during recent months. Market performance largely matched broader cryptocurrency trends.
The spot XRP ETF story shows stronger institutional participation without a matching price recovery. XRP traded at $1.14 at press time after gaining about 1% daily. The token also recorded an 8.5% gain over the previous week.
The cryptocurrency market is experiencing widespread weakness on Monday, with Bitcoin (BTC) sliding under the $63,000 mark amid ongoing risk aversion. Major altcoins, including Ethereum (ETH) and Ripple (XRP), are following suit, trending lower toward key support levels at $1,700 and $1.10, respectively.
Persistent capital outflows weigh on Bitcoin and EthereumRisk sentiment in the crypto market remains significantly subdued, weighed down by macroeconomic headwinds, geopolitical uncertainties, and a dearth of clear catalysts. Despite the crypto Fear & Greed Index ticking up to 24 on Monday, from an average of 12 last week, appetite for risk assets has not improved.
Crypto Fear & Greed Index | Source: AlternativePersistent outflows from US-listed Bitcoin spot Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) underscore waning institutional interest, with $527 million withdrawn last week alone. This marks the eighth consecutive week of net redemptions, reinforcing the ongoing bearish narrative.
Despite the outflows, cumulative inflows remain positive at $51 billion, while net assets under management average $74 billion.
Bitcoin ETF flows | Source: SoSoValueEthereum spot ETFs present a similar grim picture to Bitcoin, with outflows totaling $14 million last week, down from $273 million the previous week. According to SoSoValue, ETH ETF outflows have persisted for the eighth consecutive week, reflecting ongoing institutional investor caution.
Despite the current market headwinds, cumulative inflows hold steady at $11 billion, with total assets under management at $9 billion, signaling that conviction among long-term investors remains resilient.
Ethereum ETF flows | Source: SoSoValueInterest in XRP spot ETFs holds steady, outperforming both Bitcoin and Ethereum to post nearly $12 million in inflows last week. With nine straight weeks of inflows, interest in XRP-related digital investment products remains intact despite the headwinds and broader risk-off sentiment.
Cumulative inflows hold steady at $1.49 billion while net assets under management average $988 million, according to SoSoValue data.
XRP ETF flows | Source: SoSoValuePrice analysis: Bitcoin trades under increasing pressureBitcoin remains capped below a dense ceiling of moving averages, with the 50-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) at $65,739 and the 100-day EMA at $69,453 reinforcing a broader downtrend defined by the resistance trendline near $71,371.
The Crypto King holds just above the Bollinger middle band around $61,936, suggesting tentative near-term support, while the Relative Strength Index (RSI) hovers around 49, pointing to neutral momentum despite a still-positive Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) histogram, which hints that bullish pressure is not yet strong enough to reclaim the overhead structure.
BTC/USDT daily chartOn the topside, initial resistance emerges at the Bollinger upper band near $65,513, followed by the 50-day EMA around $65,739 and the 100-day EMA close to $69,453. Beyond these levels, the downtrend break zone at $71,371 and the 200-day EMA near $75,529 form a broader supply region.
On the downside, immediate support is lies at the Bollinger middle band around $61,936, with further demand near the lower Bollinger band at approximately $58,359. A sustained break below these levels would expose the pair to a deeper leg lower within the prevailing bearish bias.
Ethereum bears tighten grip amid deepeningEthereum trades at $1,756, keeping a bearish near-term bias as price holds below key EMAs. The 50-day EMA at $1,805 and the SuperTrend line around $1,805 form a tight resistance cluster just overhead, while the 100-day and 200-day EMAs at $1,972 and $2,256 respectively sit well above the market, reinforcing a broader downtrend.
Still, momentum has improved, with the MACD line above its signal and in positive territory and the RSI hovering slightly above 50, hinting that recent buying pressure is attempting to challenge this overhead supply.
ETH/USDT daily chartOn the topside, immediate resistance is defined by the $1,805 zone, where the SuperTrend and 50-day EMA converge. A sustained break above this area would expose the next hurdle at the 100-day EMA near $1,972, ahead of the more substantial 200-day EMA barrier around $2,256.
The smart contracts token remains vulnerable to persistent headwinds, with traders likely watching price behavior around the $1,700–$1,750 band for signs of whether the nascent momentum can persist or the dominant bearish trend reasserts itself.
XRP eyes short-term support as headwinds intensify XRP remains capped in the near term, with price holding below the 50-day EMA at $1.18 and well under the 100-day and 200-day EMAs at $1.29 and $1.50 respectively, reinforcing a broader bearish structure despite the recent bounce.
The MACD has turned positive and is edging higher, while the RSI hovers around the neutral 50 line, suggesting improving but still fragile momentum as price oscillates between the Bollinger Bands’ midline and upper layers.
XRP/USDT daily chartOn the topside, initial resistance is seen at the upper Bollinger Band near $1.20, with the 50-day EMA at $1.18 acting as a nearby dynamic barrier that needs to be reclaimed to ease downside pressure. Above these barriers, the 100-day EMA at $1.29 and the 200-day EMA at $1.50 define subsequent resistance layers. Looking down, the Bollinger middle band around $1.10 provides the first notable support, ahead of the lower band near $1.01, where a break would likely reopen the bearish leg toward lower levels.
(This article was created with the help of an Artificial Intelligence tool and reviewed by an editor. Know more.)
Bitcoin, altcoins, stablecoins FAQs Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, a virtual currency designed to serve as money. This form of payment cannot be controlled by any one person, group, or entity, which eliminates the need for third-party participation during financial transactions.
Altcoins are any cryptocurrency apart from Bitcoin, but some also regard Ethereum as a non-altcoin because it is from these two cryptocurrencies that forking happens. If this is true, then Litecoin is the first altcoin, forked from the Bitcoin protocol and, therefore, an “improved” version of it.
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies designed to have a stable price, with their value backed by a reserve of the asset it represents. To achieve this, the value of any one stablecoin is pegged to a commodity or financial instrument, such as the US Dollar (USD), with its supply regulated by an algorithm or demand. The main goal of stablecoins is to provide an on/off-ramp for investors willing to trade and invest in cryptocurrencies. Stablecoins also allow investors to store value since cryptocurrencies, in general, are subject to volatility.
Bitcoin dominance is the ratio of Bitcoin's market capitalization to the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies combined. It provides a clear picture of Bitcoin’s interest among investors. A high BTC dominance typically happens before and during a bull run, in which investors resort to investing in relatively stable and high market capitalization cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. A drop in BTC dominance usually means that investors are moving their capital and/or profits to altcoins in a quest for higher returns, which usually triggers an explosion of altcoin rallies.
The Evernorth trademark has been publicly recorded in the Cayman Islands, marking another milestone in the development of the Ripple-backed XRP Digital Asset Treasury (DAT).
Based on a recent update, the trademark filing was handled by HSM IP Ltd., a Cayman-based intellectual property firm that frequently manages trademark registrations for companies operating in the jurisdiction.
Evernorth Registers Trademark in Cayman Islands Evernorth Trademark Covers Digital Asset Financial Services According to the Cayman Islands Gazette, the Evernorth word mark (No. T0004840) has been registered under Classes 36 and 42, covering a wide range of digital asset-related financial and technology services.
Under Class 36, the trademark protects services related to digital asset portfolio creation and management, financial advisory and consulting for digital assets, digital asset treasury management, financial custody solutions, and investment strategy information for publicly traded investment funds.
Meanwhile, Class 42 focuses on the technological infrastructure supporting these offerings. Specifically, it includes software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms for blockchain validation, digital asset portfolio management software, electronic payment processing, authentication software, digital asset storage, and electronic data storage solutions.
Notably, the trademark registration remains valid until April 1, 2036, giving Evernorth nearly a decade of legal protection for its brand and related services.
Why the Cayman Islands Matter for the XRP DAT The Cayman Islands registration aligns with Evernorth’s broader corporate structure and long-term strategy. The XRP Digital Asset Treasury is currently pursuing a business combination with Armada Acquisition Corp. II, a Cayman-domiciled Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC).
Establishing the trademark in the Cayman Islands complements this structure, as the jurisdiction is widely used by global investment vehicles due to its tax neutrality, asset protection framework, and efficient intellectual property and global licensing regime.
Consequently, the trademark filing strengthens the legal foundation for Evernorth’s institutional XRP treasury initiative as the company moves closer to becoming a publicly traded entity.
Evernorth Expands Institutional XRP Strategy Beyond securing its intellectual property, Evernorth continues to expand its institutional XRP strategy. The company already holds approximately 473 million XRP, making it one of the largest corporate holders of the cryptocurrency.
Rather than operating as a passive investment vehicle, Evernorth plans to actively grow its XRP reserves. Its strategy includes institutional lending, liquidity provisioning, and participation in decentralized finance (DeFi) yield opportunities to generate additional returns on its holdings.
At the same time, Evernorth is advancing its public listing plans. The company has submitted multiple amendments to its S-4 registration filings as it seeks a Nasdaq listing under the ticker XRPN, which would provide institutional investors with regulated exposure to XRP.
Additionally, Evernorth has strengthened its leadership team by appointing four new board members, including Ripple Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty, further reinforcing its ties to the XRP ecosystem and its long-term institutional ambitions.
DisClamier: This content is informational and should not be considered financial advice. The views expressed in this article may include the author's personal opinions and do not reflect The Crypto Basic opinion. Readers are encouraged to do thorough research before making any investment decisions. The Crypto Basic is not responsible for any financial losses.
Cover image via U.Today Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by our writers are their own and do not represent the views of U.Today. The financial and market information provided on U.Today is intended for informational purposes only. U.Today is not liable for any financial losses incurred while trading cryptocurrencies. Conduct your own research by contacting financial experts before making any investment decisions. We believe that all content is accurate as of the date of publication, but certain offers mentioned may no longer be available.
TL;DR
XRP's Binance Scarcity Index jumped to 0.77 in early July, the highest reading since summer 2024, as whales pull coins into non-custodial wallets while price holds near $1.14.A BitGo-custodied wallet moved 114.9 billion SHIB, worth about $502,230, into a previously inactive cold wallet, a signal of accumulation rather than sell pressure.Strategy CEO Phong Le published a manifesto calling Bitcoin a "guarantor of monetary freedom," even as the company sold 3,588 BTC for $216 million across two tranches.Bitcoin fell below $62,000 as the miner stress index hit 0.00, matching capitulation lows from 2015, 2018, 2020, and 2022.Markets are watching the July 7 NY Fed inflation expectations and July 8 FOMC minutes as the next directional catalyst.Binance records XRP's deepest scarcity since 2024XRP entered the third quarter of 2026 with a sharp imbalance in its supply structure. According to fresh on-chain data from CryptoQuant, published this Monday, Binance has recorded a historic draining of XRP order-book liquidity.
The specialized Binance XRP Scarcity Index made a vertical jump to 0.77 in the first days of July — the highest level of liquidity shortage since the summer of 2024.
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Analysts at Arab Chain stress that the worsening scarcity is isolated in nature. While XRP's spot price is trading near $1.14, attempting to hold above local resistance after a push to $1.159, the freely circulating supply of coins is shrinking quickly.
XRP Binance Scarcity Index from January 2024 to July 2026, Source: CryptoQuantThe trend shift is being driven by large holders: around the turn of the half-year, whales minimized new deposits and intensified withdrawals to non-custodial wallets, effectively removing tokens from the market.
Historically, this kind of reserve drain at the start of July has acted as a strong leading indicator. Selling pressure declines, while the situation in the order books tightens like a spring, and since July traditionally opens a period of higher activity for XRP, any local inflow of buyer demand — against the backdrop of continued inflows into XRP ETFs — could trigger a sharp price impulse.
The nearest target for the start of a rally is the $1.17–$1.20 zone, while in the case of market cooling, the asset could return to firm support at $1.10.
BitGo whale hides 114 billion Shiba Inu coins in a new walletWhile the crypto market opens July 2026 in prolonged consolidation, major players have begun hidden maneuvers. A whale used the BitGo custody service and withdrew 114.9 billion SHIB through the WalletSimple platform in two transactions, according to Arkham.
This entire massive token volume settled at a completely new address that had previously been inactive. At the current rate on July 6, 2026, which is holding near $0.0000044 per token, the wallet balance is valued at approximately $502,230.
Fresh wallet '0x873366' absorbing 114.9 billion SHIB from BitGo, Source: ArkhamAccording to on-chain tracker data, SHIB tokens were transferred directly to a cold address, bypassing the hot wallets of centralized trading platforms.
This route means there is no immediate pressure on the meme coin's market order book. For the current market phase, this is a classic marker of preparation for a large over-the-counter deal or a transfer of assets into long-term storage by a major fund.
Further activity from this wallet is worth watching especially closely for Shiba Inu token holders.
Strategy manifests freedom while the market counts its million-dollar salesAt the start of the new week, Strategy CEO Phong Le published the "Bitcoin is Freedom" manifesto, calling the first cryptocurrency "the United States of money." The executive drew a parallel between the blockchain's algorithmic code and the U.S. Constitution, arguing that the protocol replaces bureaucracy and official interventionism with transparent rules, decentralized consensus, and limited issuance.
According to Le, the network reproduces a model of capitalism with free competition and protection of property rights without being tied to geography.
However, the loud rhetoric about Bitcoin's long-term resilience coincided with a large corporate move into cash, adding sharpness to the piece. Fresh corporate reporting for the past week showed that, at the turn of the quarter, Strategy reduced its reserves by 3,588 BTC, selling coins in two tranches: 1,363 BTC at the end of June and another 2,225 BTC between July 1 and July 5.
Dynamic of Bitcoin price amid statement from CEO Le and recent announcement of BTC sale, Source: TradingViewThe sale brought the company $216 million in total, increasing its dollar reserves to $2.55 billion as of July 5, 2026.
At the start of the third quarter of 2026, Strategy still holds its position as the largest whale, with a balance of 843,775 BTC, while the value of its digital assets at the end of Q2 stood at $49.67 billion. At the same time, the audit revealed an accumulated unrealized loss of $8.31 billion.
The contrast between the CEO's statements about Bitcoin as a "guarantor of monetary freedom" and sales aimed at protecting financial metrics triggered skepticism among observers. On the news of growing sales from Strategy, Bitcoin fell below the psychological $62,000 mark.
Pressure from a key institutional player clearly triggered a wave of local sell-offs, forcing traders to reassess risks while corporate leadership discusses the global freedom of blockchain.
Crypto market outlook: Saylor and miner capitulation pressure Bitcoin near July's key trendlinesBitcoin is testing the strength of the $62,000 support zone, reacting to a confirmed breakdown of the local long-term trend amid news of BTC sales by Michael Saylor. The market has frozen ahead of the FOMC minutes, which will determine whether the current sell-off turns into a full move toward $58,000 or launches a V-shaped reversal.
Key checkpoints:
BTC/USD technical breakdown: The price impulsively broke below the support line near $62,500 with a vertical red candle, briefly dropping to $62,118. The main horizontal volume area, according to the VRVP POC, was traded higher — in the $62,600–$62,850 range — turning this zone into local resistance. Meanwhile, the RSI(14) fell to 37.73, confirming the development of downside momentum.Absolute miner capitulation: The miner stress index fell to 0.00, matching the lows of 2015, 2018, 2020, and 2022. The realized profit/loss ratio is at a 43-month low. The total amount of BTC held at a loss reached 10.5 million, which has historically pointed to the formation of a macroeconomic bottom.Macroeconomic trigger on July 7: The release of the NY Fed's consumer inflation expectations for June. A decline in the figures would strengthen the probability of Federal Reserve monetary easing after weak NFP data showed only 57,000 new jobs.FOMC minutes on July 8: The release of the Fed minutes will define the medium-term trend. Dovish rhetoric would trigger a short squeeze, while hawkish signals would send the price to test the key $60,000–$62,000 support zone. You Might Also Like
Travel-focused crypto platform Travala has announced that payments for more than 2.2 million hotels and accommodation options in 230 countries can now be made using XRP. This feature enables XRP holders to directly make reservations with their crypto assets across a wide range of destinations, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, Thailand and Singapore.
XRP launches direct booking eraWith this new integration, users can now pay for their stays with XRP, bypassing both traditional banks and credit card networks. Travala noted that bookings are confirmed quickly after payment, contributing to an efficient reservation experience for crypto-savvy travelers.
Travala reported that over 2.2 million hotels worldwide are now available for booking with XRP, eliminating the need for banks and ensuring swift booking approvals.
Travala stands out as a prominent travel booking platform powered by cryptocurrency. The platform aggregates hotels, resorts, apartments and short-term rental options, supporting numerous digital assets in addition to conventional payment methods.
Mini dictionary: RLUSD refers to a dollar-based stablecoin structure linked to the Ripple ecosystem. The XRP Ledger is the blockchain network that records XRP transactions.
Everyday use cases for XRP expandThis advance marks another step showing that XRP is not limited to cross-border payments and institutional finance. Known for its fast settlement speed and comparatively low transaction fees, the digital asset is becoming more visible as a practical option for daily spending.
The launch comes at a time of growing activity in the XRP ecosystem. In May, activity on the XRP Ledger reached record levels, with on-chain transactions up 65% compared to the same period last year.
TitleDataNumber of accommodation optionsOver 2.2 millionCountries covered230XRP Ledger transaction growth65% annuallyThe increase across the XRP Ledger has been driven in part by higher transaction volumes from crypto exchange Bitstamp and growing interest in Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin. These factors indicate that the usage of XRP is extending beyond mere investment, shifting toward tangible application scenarios.
XRP continues to deliver concrete use cases across various sectors, ranging from institutional settlement deals and stablecoin transfers to global travel bookings.
Commercial adoption of crypto payments gains momentumTravala’s integration provides XRP holders with wide access to the travel market and highlights the growing presence of crypto assets in consumer services. The use of digital assets for everyday purchases signals an acceleration in commercial adoption of cryptocurrency within the sector.
With this move, XRP is strengthening its position among cryptocurrencies delivering practical functionality beyond speculative trading. The ability to complete travel reservations directly with XRP gives the asset greater visibility as a payment option for daily use.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
Brad Garlinghouse called Strategy’s sliding preferred shares a damning indictment of financial engineering. Traders answered with an uncomfortable observation: Ripple also funds itself from the asset it champions, one billion escrowed XRP at a time. The feud between crypto’s two most leveraged evangelists says more about both companies than either intended.
Summary
Brad Garlinghouse criticised Strategy’s Bitcoin treasury model, prompting traders to argue that Ripple also relies on regular XRP sales from escrow to fund its operations. The report says both companies depend on recurring market demand for the assets or securities they sell, although their funding structures and financial risks differ significantly. Strategy’s model faces pressure from fixed dividend obligations, while Ripple’s escrow based funding is presented as more flexible but remains dependent on sustained demand for XRP. In the last days of June 2026, with Strategy’s flagship preferred stock trading roughly 25 percent below its $100 par value, Ripple chief executive Brad Garlinghouse decided to say what he thought about it. Financial engineering, he argued across a CNBC appearance and a run of posts, does not drive long-term value; utility does. The slide in Strategy’s preferreds was, in his words, a damning indictment of a model built on perpetually selling paper against Bitcoin.
The crypto market being what it is, the counterattack arrived within hours, and it did not come from Strategy. It came from traders pointing at Ripple’s own balance sheet. One widely shared critique put it in five words: two giants, same model. Ripple, the observation went, funds its operations by selling XRP released from escrow every month, tokens it received for nothing at the network’s genesis. Strategy funds Bitcoin purchases by selling preferred shares and debt against coins it bought on the open market. Both companies are, structurally, perpetual sellers of claims connected to the asset their communities want to appreciate.
The comparison is not perfect, and the imperfections are where it gets interesting. But the fact that it landed at all, and stung, reveals something true: the two loudest corporate evangelists in crypto both run treasuries that lean on their chosen asset, and each has built a machine that only works while the market keeps buying what the machine sells. Garlinghouse’s attack on Saylor was accurate. So was the response.
This is an autopsy of the feud: what Garlinghouse actually said, what is really breaking at Strategy, how Ripple’s own funding machine works, where the symmetry holds and where it fails, and why the fight matters for holders of both assets.
What Garlinghouse said, and why now The Ripple chief executive’s late-June comments were unusually pointed for a man who spends most of his public time on regulatory diplomacy. Utility drives long-term value, he argued, and financial engineering does not; companies that exist to hold an asset, funded by issuing securities against it, are running a trade, not a business. The specific exhibit was Strategy’s preferred stock complex, and above all STRC, the retail-focused instrument that had slipped to around 25 percent below its $100 par before a partial recovery toward $84.
He also reached for history. Michael Saylor had spent years dismissing XRP, at one point in 2022 calling it an unregistered security that would be regulated out of relevance, a comment the Ripple community has never forgotten and the SEC case ultimately did not vindicate. Garlinghouse returning fire in Strategy’s weakest quarter was, among other things, a settling of accounts four years in the making.
The timing was not random. Strategy’s model is under its most sustained pressure since the company began accumulating: Bitcoin spent June grinding to 21-month lows near $57,750 before a modest bounce, and the mathematics of the treasury trade turned openly ugly. The company holds 847,363 BTC at an average cost near $75,650, which at June’s lows put the position more than $10 billion underwater on paper for the first time in the current cycle. The market value of the company converged with the value of its coins, with the closely watched mNAV ratio touching 0.99, meaning the equity briefly priced the entire corporate structure at less than the Bitcoin inside it.
For a company whose whole premise is that its securities deserve a premium to their Bitcoin backing, an mNAV below one is not a data point. It is the thesis inverting.
Garlinghouse chose his moment the way prosecutors choose theirs, when the defendant is already bleeding.
Four years of accumulated grievance The feud reads as sudden only to observers who missed its long fuse. Saylor and Garlinghouse have been running opposed theories of crypto value since 2020, and each man’s theory requires the other’s asset to be a mistake.
Saylor’s Bitcoin maximalism was never quiet about XRP. His 2022 dismissal of the token as an unregistered security destined for regulatory oblivion came during the darkest stretch of the SEC lawsuit, when Ripple’s survival was an open question and the token was delisted across American platforms. The comment did not age well in its specifics; the 2023 ruling found XRP itself was not a security in exchange sales, the case settled, and by late 2025 the token had spot ETFs trading in New York. But it cemented a personal dimension that ordinary corporate rivalry lacks. In the XRP community’s memory, Saylor kicked them at the bottom, and Garlinghouse’s June offensive was received there less as analysis than as overdue payback.
The structural rivalry deepened as the companies converged on the same buyers. Strategy’s pitch to institutions is Bitcoin exposure through familiar securities; Ripple’s pitch, increasingly, is regulated crypto infrastructure, custody, stablecoins, prime brokerage, sold to the same treasurers and asset managers. Each chief executive now spends his public life arguing that institutional capital should flow through his door, which makes every stumble by one a sales document for the other. When Strategy’s preferreds slid, Ripple’s sales narrative improved by exactly that much, and Garlinghouse’s decision to narrate the slide personally was, among other things, marketing with a decade of receipts attached.
There is also a generational symmetry neither would enjoy hearing. Both men are the last of crypto’s founder-evangelist chief executives still running at full volume: survivors of multiple cycles, personally synonymous with their assets, and increasingly graded by markets that have stopped awarding style points. The 2026 bear market is auditing both legacies at once, which is why a single CNBC hit escalated so fast.
Neither side is arguing about a preferred stock. They are arguing about which of two life’s works the next cycle vindicates.
What is actually cracking at Strategy Strategy’s machine has three moving parts: buy Bitcoin, issue securities against the story, use the proceeds to buy more Bitcoin. The genius of the design in a bull market is reflexivity; every part reinforces the others. The problem in a bear market is the same reflexivity running in reverse.
The preferred stock complex is where the stress concentrates, because the preferreds are the instruments that carry mandatory-feeling obligations. STRC and its siblings pay rich fixed dividends, marketed to income investors as a way to earn double-digit yield on a Bitcoin-adjacent instrument. Those dividends must be paid in cash, and Strategy’s operating software business generates only a sliver of the required amount. The rest comes from issuing more securities, which works while prices cooperate and compounds the obligation when they do not. Analysis circulating from CryptoQuant put the company’s cash and equivalents against its dividend run rate at roughly 14 months of coverage, a runway, not a crisis, but a runway that shortens every quarter the capital markets stay closed to new issuance at acceptable prices.
The company’s response has been to reframe. A newly published Digital Credit framework recasts the preferred complex as a deliberate credit structure rather than an equity kicker, alongside disclosures of a cash position near $3.8 billion intended to reassure preferred holders that dividends are funded regardless of Bitcoin’s path. The reframing had an effect; STRC bounced from its lows toward $84. But a bounce toward 84 cents on the dollar is still a market pricing meaningful doubt into a par instrument, and the underlying arithmetic, fixed cash obligations against a volatile treasury asset, is unchanged.
The bond market’s verdict has been quieter but harsher than the equity market’s. Instruments marketed on the premise that Bitcoin’s ascent makes their coupons safe are being repriced on the premise that the coupons must survive Bitcoin’s descent, which is a different underwriting question entirely, and one the complex was never really sold to answer.
None of this means Strategy is broken. The company has survived worse drawdowns, holds an asset with a history of violent recoveries, and has never been forced to sell a coin. What has cracked is the premium, the market’s willingness to pay more than one dollar for a dollar of Strategy’s Bitcoin, and the premium was the engine. A treasury company at mNAV 1.0 is just a fund with expenses and a dividend bill.
Ripple’s machine, examined honestly To weigh the two giants claim, the Ripple side of the ledger needs the same unsentimental treatment.
Ripple received the bulk of XRP’s fixed 100 billion supply at the network’s creation. In December 2017, it locked 55 billion of those tokens into ledger-enforced escrow, releasing a maximum of one billion per month, a system whose mechanics are worth understanding in full because it is the load-bearing structure of the company’s finances. Each month, Ripple keeps a portion of the release, typically returning 600 to 800 million tokens to new escrows, and the kept portion, generally 200 to 300 million XRP, funds institutional sales, ecosystem investment, and operations.
Strip away the terminology and the structure is this: a private company holding tens of billions of tokens it did not buy, selling a bounded stream of them into the market, every month, for going on a decade. The July 1 release moved one billion XRP, worth about $1.04 billion, through the machine on schedule. The sales are real supply that holders absorb; back-of-envelope, the net release adds an effective inflation of several percent per year to circulating XRP. When Garlinghouse says utility drives value, critics answer that whatever the utility, the most reliable flow in the XRP market is Ripple selling.
The company’s defense is disclosure and discipline. The schedule is public, protocol-enforced, and has never been broken; the relock rate shows restraint; the sales increasingly go to institutional buyers off-exchange; and the proceeds built an actual business, spanning payments, custody, a stablecoin, and the institutional finance stack growing on the XRP Ledger. Ripple processed some $16 trillion in payments volume last year by its own telling, though almost none of it moved through digital assets, a caveat that critics note does heavy lifting.
The war chest the machine built is the part critics skip. A decade of escrow-funded operations left Ripple with cash, an investment portfolio, and acquisition capacity that let it buy its way into prime brokerage and custody during the bear market, spending when leveraged competitors were retrenching. Whatever the model’s fairness, its output is a company that does not need favorable markets to survive them, which is precisely the resilience Strategy’s structure lacks. The same tokens that fund the machine also hang over it: Ripple still holds tens of billions of XRP inside and outside escrow, a treasury whose paper value swings billions with every large move in the token, and whose eventual disposition is the largest known variable in XRP’s long-term supply.
The honest summary: Ripple’s funding model is a slow, transparent, rule-bound liquidation of a genesis grant. That is neither fraud nor utility. It is a financial structure, the very category Garlinghouse aimed at Saylor.
Where the symmetry holds The two companies rhyme in more ways than either community likes to admit.
Both are structural sellers of claims tied to their asset. Ripple sells the asset itself from escrow; Strategy sells securities collateralized by the story of the asset. In both cases, the community holding the asset provides the bid that the corporate machine sells into, and in both cases the machine’s health depends on that bid persisting. The dynamic is familiar from every corner of crypto where a large holder must sell to operate, from foundations to the miners whose forced selling set records this year: the entity most invested in the asset’s success is also its most dependable source of supply.
Both are bets that a corporate structure can capture value from a decentralized asset. Saylor’s claim is that Strategy transforms Bitcoin into yield-bearing instruments the traditional market can buy, and deserves a premium for the packaging. Ripple’s claim is that a company can build enough utility around XRP that the token appreciates despite the company’s own selling. Each asks holders to believe the corporate layer adds more than it extracts.
Both have concentrated key-man risk and evangelist chief executives whose personal credibility is a balance sheet asset. And both, crucially, have never been tested by the one scenario their critics model: a market that stops absorbing the machine’s output for years rather than months. Strategy has never had to sell Bitcoin into weakness; Ripple has never faced a market that could not soak up its net release. The 2026 bear market is the closest either has come, which is exactly why the feud erupted now.
Where the symmetry breaks The differences matter as much as the rhyme, and they cut in both directions.
Ripple’s advantages are structural. It sells an asset it was granted, not one it bought with leverage, so there is no cost basis to defend and no margin for a drawdown to destroy. Its obligations are discretionary; the company can slow sales, and owes nobody a dividend. Its escrow is a ceiling, not a floor, and a decade of relocking is a real track record of restraint. Strategy, by contrast, carries fixed cash obligations against a volatile asset, the classic shape of every leveraged treasury accident in financial history. On pure survivability, the comparison flatters Ripple.
Strategy’s advantages are about alignment. Saylor bought his Bitcoin; every coin on the balance sheet was paid for at market, and shareholders chose the leverage knowingly. Ripple’s XRP cost it nothing, which means every sale is nearly pure proceeds, and the buyers funding the company are, in the main, believers in the token the company was given. Critics of Ripple find that arrangement more troubling than Strategy’s, not less: Saylor is levered alongside his holders, while Ripple is structurally the counterparty to its own community. The SEC agreed in part, finding in 2023 that Ripple’s institutional XRP sales were unregistered securities offerings, litigation Strategy never faced for buying an asset regulators treat as a commodity.
There is also a difference in what failure looks like. If Strategy’s model fails, the damage is concentrated: preferred holders and shareholders eat losses, and Bitcoin absorbs a large forced seller. If Ripple’s model fails, meaning the market permanently stops absorbing escrow releases at viable prices, the company slows the machine and lives off its accumulated war chest and businesses, from custody to its stablecoin and consortium positions. One machine is fragile and aligned; the other is durable and extractive. Pick your indictment.
What breaking would actually look like Since both communities spend the bear market gaming the other machine’s failure, it is worth specifying, mechanically, what failure would require for each. The exercise is clarifying, because neither breaking point is where the rhetoric puts it.
Strategy does not break at any particular Bitcoin price. An unrealized loss, even the ten-figure one June produced, forces nothing by itself. The machine breaks at the intersection of three conditions: capital markets closed to new issuance at tolerable terms, the cash runway for preferred dividends exhausted, and Bitcoin still depressed when the runway ends. The CryptoQuant-style coverage math, roughly 14 months at recent burn, is therefore the number to watch, along with every successful or failed issuance that extends or shortens it. If the company reaches the runway’s end with markets still shut, the choices collapse to suspending preferred dividends, which detonates the income story the complex was sold on, or selling Bitcoin, which detonates the never-sell story the equity was sold on. Either detonation is survivable as finance and devastating as narrative, and Strategy is, before anything else, a narrative company.
Ripple’s machine breaks differently, because its obligations are soft. The company cannot be forced to sell escrow releases into a bid that is not there; it can relock more, spend reserves, and wait. What actually breaks the model is a demand-side regime change that outlasts the war chest: exchange volumes, institutional sales, and ETF absorption persistently below the net release for years, forcing the company to choose between starving its operations and visibly capitulating on price. The tell would appear first in the monthly relock data, months where Ripple returns far more than 800 million because it cannot place the difference, and in the ETF creations that have so far run inflows even through the June collapse. Ripple’s breaking point, in other words, is measured in years of demand drought, whereas Strategy’s is measured in months of dividend runway. That asymmetry, more than any quote from either chief executive, is the real difference between the giants.
The shared vulnerability is the reflexivity of reputation. Each machine runs on the founder’s credibility with a specific buyer base, income investors for Saylor, the XRP faithful and institutional partners for Garlinghouse, and credibility is the one input that cannot be relocked or refinanced once spent. Public feuds draw down exactly that account, which is the best argument that this fight, entertaining as it is, was unwise for both.
What the feud is really about Beneath the personal history, Garlinghouse and Saylor are arguing about the only question that matters for corporate crypto: what entitles a company to trade at a premium to the assets it touches?
Saylor’s answer is packaging and leverage: transform a volatile commodity into instruments with yields, durations, and risk profiles that traditional capital can hold, and the transformation deserves a spread. The 2026 drawdown is testing whether that spread survives an mNAV of one, and the original exchange that started this feud happened precisely because the test is live.
Bitcoin will evolve by changing less at the protocol layer and mattering more everywhere else.
The base layer will harden.
The capital markets will deepen.
Digital Credit will expand.
The world will build on Bitcoin. $BTC https://t.co/2ptwt4XJdu
— Michael Saylor (@saylor) July 6, 2026 Garlinghouse’s answer is utility and adoption: build payment corridors, custody, stablecoins, and bank integrations, and the token underneath appreciates on fundamentals. The awkwardness is that after a decade of building, XRP trades near $1.15, down roughly 70 percent over a year, while the company thrives, a divergence that suggests corporate success and token appreciation are far more loosely coupled than the utility thesis promises.
The stakes extend well past the two companies, because each man is the reference implementation for a sector. Strategy spawned an entire class of digital asset treasury companies, dozens of firms across Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, and beyond, that copied the playbook of issuing securities to accumulate tokens, and the whole class has compressed toward or below net asset value in the 2026 drawdown. If the original cannot hold a premium, the copies have no argument at all, and the capital markets window that funded the sector’s accumulation closes for everyone at once. Ripple, meanwhile, is the reference case for the token-issuer-as-operating-company model, the template every foundation and labs entity with a treasury full of its own token quietly studies. How the market ultimately judges a decade of escrow-funded operations sets the discount rate on every project financed the same way.
Neither man can point at the scoreboard right now. Strategy’s premium has evaporated; Ripple’s token has detached from its company. Both models produced billion-dollar enterprises, and both have so far failed, in this bear market, to produce what their communities actually bought in for.
The question holders should actually ask For all its entertainment value, the feud offers one genuinely useful lens to holders of either asset: identify the machine, then ask what keeps it fed.
Strategy’s machine is fed by capital markets. The question for its investors is not whether Saylor believes, but whether new buyers of preferreds and converts keep showing up at prices that let the dividends get paid without selling coins. Watch issuance windows, coverage runway, and the mNAV, because those are the machine’s vital signs, and the recent bounce in STRC is the market betting, tentatively, that the framework holds.
Ripple’s machine is fed by the XRP market itself. The question for its holders is not whether the company wins customers, but whether the demand side, exchange flow, institutional sales, the new ETFs that have been quietly absorbing supply, keeps outrunning a permanent, transparent seller. Watch the monthly net release against those flows, because that ratio, not partnership headlines, is what the last decade says actually governs the float.
Two giants, same model was meant as a gotcha, and it worked because it was half true. The fuller truth is sharper: two giants, two machines, one shared dependency. Both run on belief that renews monthly, and in a market like this one, belief is the scarcest collateral either company holds.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Digital asset markets are volatile and you can lose your entire investment. Always do your own research. Information current as of July 6, 2026.
Recent social commentary has brought attention to official records showing that South Korean lawmakers and other public officials own significant amounts of XRP.
Although the disclosures first became public around March 2025, market participants have recently started discussing the data, as they assess the cryptocurrency holdings of government officials.
For context, South Korea now requires public officials to regularly disclose their assets, and those disclosures now include cryptocurrencies. The country expanded these rules after a series of regulatory changes and high-profile crypto-related controversies.
South Korea’s Disclosure Rules Notably, South Korea has one of the world’s most active cryptocurrency markets, and the country has continued to strengthen oversight as digital assets become more widely used.
As part of this effort, authorities expanded public asset disclosure rules to cover virtual assets. Data released around March 2025 showed that lawmakers held substantial amounts of XRP.
Among those disclosures, Seoul City Councilor Kim Hye-young reported the largest cryptocurrency portfolio during the reporting period.
Her family’s virtual asset holdings were worth about 1.76 billion Korean won, or roughly $1.14 million. The portfolio included 16 different cryptocurrencies.
Kim Hye-young’s Family Held More Than 522,000 XRP The filing showed that Kim Hye-young’s spouse owned 519,004 XRP, while her eldest son held another 3,336 XRP. Together, the family’s XRP holdings came to 522,340 XRP.
The disclosure also included several other digital assets. Her spouse reported holding 0.01226935 ETH and 472 DOGE in addition to XRP. Kim Hye-young also disclosed personal cryptocurrency holdings, including 0.00144591 BTC.
Seoul City Councilor Choi Min-gyu reported the second-largest cryptocurrency portfolio. His virtual assets were valued at about 1.62 billion Korean won, or around $1 million. His holdings included 409,551 XRP, 9,402 Arbitrum (ARB), and 4,701 Cardano (ADA), along with several other altcoins.
Hundreds of Officials Reported Crypto Assets The broader disclosure figures came from the Public Officials Ethics Committee, which published changes to officials’ property filings for 2025 around March 27, 2025.
The data showed that 411 of the 2,047 officials required to file disclosures reported owning cryptocurrencies. This represented about 20.1% of all officials covered by the reporting rules.
The total value of those crypto holdings reached 14.4 billion Korean won, or over $9.4 million. On average, each official who disclosed digital assets reported holdings worth around 35 million Korean won, equal to roughly $25,000.
The records also showed that XRP ranked among the cryptocurrencies most commonly held by officials and their family members.
South Korea expanded these disclosure requirements after earlier controversies, including the case involving lawmaker Kim Nam-guk and his large undisclosed cryptocurrency holdings.
Before the reforms, officials did not always have to report virtual assets. Lawmakers began proposing changes as early as 2023 to close those gaps in the disclosure rules.
U.S. Lawmakers Report Much Smaller XRP Holdings Meanwhile, in the United States, lawmakers disclose financial assets under the STOCK Act, which covers investments such as stocks and cryptocurrencies. Public filings generally show much smaller XRP holdings than those reported in South Korea.
Representative Guy Reschenthaler of Pennsylvania disclosed cryptocurrency purchases made in late 2024, including XRP and Solana around Dec. 11, 2024, before later buying Bitcoin.
His reported holdings fell within the required disclosure range of $1,000 to $15,000 for each asset. Meanwhile, more recently, White House official Ian Kelley confirmed holding XRP in an official disclosure.
DisClamier: This content is informational and should not be considered financial advice. The views expressed in this article may include the author's personal opinions and do not reflect The Crypto Basic opinion. Readers are encouraged to do thorough research before making any investment decisions. The Crypto Basic is not responsible for any financial losses.
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Ripple today announced it has received authorization of its Crypto Asset Service Provider (CASP) license from Luxembourg's Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF).
This follows the preliminary approval announced in June 2026 and confirms Ripple as fully MiCA-compliant, with its crypto payments solution now available to financial institutions, corporations, and companies in all 30 European Economic Area nations.
The CASP license, when combined with Ripple's existing EU Electronic Money Institution (EMI) licence, will allow European banks, fintechs, and corporations to access Ripple's entire cryptoasset and stablecoin payments infrastructure, enabling them to collect, exchange, and pay out through a single integration for the first time.
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Ripple UK CEO Cassie Craddock celebrated the milestone in an X post. "We're fully licensed in Europe and excited to keep building on the incredible momentum of recent months. Let's go," Craddock wrote.
We're fully licensed in Europe and excited to keep building on the incredible momentum of recent months. Let's go!🚀 https://t.co/LVKKKgpKVX
— Cassie Craddock (@CraddockCJ) July 6, 2026 The executive noted a demand among the institutions Ripple works with across Europe to build their digital asset services alongside regulated partners, and the company is now licensed and ready to meet that demand.
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Alongside its EU EMI license, Ripple's CASP approval places it among the few digital asset providers with full MiCA authorization, adding to a global portfolio of over 75 regulatory licenses.
XRP, RLUSD set to benefitThe RLUSD stablecoin and XRP underpin Ripple's solutions, which span global payments, custody, liquidity, and treasury management.
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The CASP license approval will let Ripple expand its cryptoasset services to financial institutions and businesses across all 30 countries of the European Economic Area. As a result, the RLUSD stablecoin and XRP are set to benefit immensely.
The license also positions Ripple to delve into broader crypto-asset activities in Europe as it continues to meet rising European demand for digital asset services and infrastructure. Europe is already a key market for Ripple's products, with some of the world's major financial institutions among its customers.