Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

Ripple is seeking to simplify the transition of banks and financial institutions to blockchain technology by integrating its services with SettleMint, a platform specializing in digital asset lifecycle management. The initiative aims to provide banks with a unified solution for custody, issuance, compliance, settlement, and servicing, addressing the challenge of managing multiple technology vendors.

Integrated banking infrastructureRipple’s partnership with SettleMint, launched earlier this month and already active in Asia, allows institutions to operate all key asset management functions within a single technology stack. This integration removes the need for banks to coordinate various providers for custody, compliance, issuance, and settlement, offering a more streamlined procurement model.

Under the collaboration, Ripple Custody delivers institutional-grade asset security and governance, while SettleMint’s Digital Asset Lifecycle Platform manages the full lifecycle of tokenized assets across issuance, transfer, and servicing.

Mini dictionary: SettleMint is a technology company providing a platform that helps organizations deploy blockchain-based applications, focusing on digital asset lifecycle management for financial institutions.

Boston Consulting Group estimates that the total value of digital real-world assets may reach $88 trillion by 2035, potentially accounting for 16% of global investable assets in an optimistic scenario. According to BCG, banks could see up to 15% of their revenue and 30% of profits at risk if value continues shifting toward digital-asset competitors.

MetricEstimateReference YearDigital real-world assets market size$88 trillion2035% of global investable assets16%2035 (aggressive scenario)Banks’ revenue at risk15%2035Banks’ profits at risk30%2035 As tokenization shifts toward mainstream banking, Ripple is focusing on delivering complete infrastructure covering custody, issuance, compliance, and settlement in anticipation of a massive $88 trillion opportunity.

Implications for institutions and XRP investorsRipple’s strategy is to expand beyond offering a single cryptocurrency product by building out a full institutional infrastructure. The company has also developed capital markets capabilities, investing in platforms such as ZILO and Licuido to support transfer agency, collateral management, and issuance services.

Importantly, current details regarding SettleMint’s partnership confirm that participating banks are not required to use XRP, the XRP Ledger (XRPL), or RLUSD. No specific client, blockchain network, transaction figures, or tokenized assets have been publicly identified.

Ripple continues to differentiate between its broader institutional offerings and direct demand for XRP. While the partnership strengthens Ripple’s position in institutional finance by providing banks with options for custody, payments, stablecoin infrastructure, and tokenization, it does not guarantee an immediate increase in XRP usage.

Ripple’s integration with SettleMint expands its presence in banking while remaining separate from direct XRP adoption. The next major development will be if a named financial institution begins using the combined system in actual operations, including public disclosure of settlement assets and transaction volumes.

The focus now shifts to seeing a leading financial institution publicly implement the entire Ripple-SettleMint stack and share details on the underlying blockchain and asset flows.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has postponed the registration effectiveness date for the Teucrium 2x Short Daily XRP ETF, a product designed to offer amplified inverse exposure to XRP price movements. This update stems from a new filing submitted by Listed Funds Trust, which reflects ongoing regulatory review and pushes back the introduction of one of the most watched exchange-traded funds in the XRP space.

ETF launch delayed to October 2026According to the recent SEC filing, the activation of the registration statement for the Teucrium 2x Short Daily XRP ETF has been officially deferred until October 11, 2026. This delay arises from a post-effective amendment made by Listed Funds Trust, a registered investment vehicle that manages various exchange-traded products in the U.S. market, under the Securities Act of 1933 and the Investment Company Act of 1940.

The revised timeline means that the launch date for the fund has shifted accordingly, with regulatory clearance now required for any further action after the newly stated date. The move keeps the product in the pipeline for future listing but prevents its market debut in the near term.

This ETF targets institutional and sophisticated retail investors searching for increased access to XRP through regulated investment products. XRP, recognized as one of the leading digital assets by market capitalization, continues to attract significant attention from fund issuers and investors alike.

Details of the Teucrium 2x Short Daily XRP ETFThe Teucrium 2x Short Daily XRP ETF is structured to deliver investors twice the inverse daily performance of XRP. In essence, if XRP declines by 3% on a given trading day, the ETF seeks to generate a gain of approximately 6%, before accounting for fees and expenses. Conversely, if XRP rises, the fund will magnify the loss on the same basis.

Such leveraged inverse products appeal to investors managing short-term trading strategies or hedging positions in volatile markets. Performance deviations may occur due to compounding over holding periods longer than a single day.

Market participants had been anticipating the listing of this product as part of broader efforts by issuers to expand the range of crypto-based ETFs in the United States. However, the latest timeline adjustment underscores regulatory caution around more complex leveraged and inverse crypto offerings.

Mini dictionary: Teucrium is a financial company based in the United States that specializes in creating and managing exchange-traded products, including commodity and digital asset ETFs, for both institutional and retail investors.

Ongoing interest in XRP ETFsDespite the postponement of the Teucrium ETF’s registration, the market for XRP-based ETFs continues to expand in response to demand from institutional investors. Multiple asset managers remain in the approval queue, seeking SEC endorsement for various XRP-related exchange-traded funds.

These prospective offerings reflect growing acceptance of digital assets within mainstream financial markets, even as regulatory authorities proceed with caution regarding more sophisticated or leveraged products.

While the new date sets October 11, 2026, as the earliest the Teucrium 2x Short Daily XRP ETF could go effective, this does not guarantee that trading will begin on that date, as additional steps may still be required before the fund can launch.

ETFTypeExposureEarliest Launch DateTeucrium 2x Short Daily XRP ETFInverse, Leveraged2x daily inverse to XRPOctober 11, 2026The delay affects only the registration effectiveness and not the underlying approval process, meaning that regulatory review is ongoing. Other ETF applicants remain active as institutional interest in regulated crypto products continues to build.

What is Ripple Prime?Ripple Prime is the prime brokerage business created after Ripple acquired Hidden Road for $1.25 billion. The transaction was completed in October 2025, after which Hidden Road was rebranded as Ripple Prime. 

Ripple said the acquisition made it the first crypto company to own and operate a global, multi-asset prime broker.

The acquisition brought an established institutional business into Ripple's portfolio. Before the deal, Hidden Road was already clearing more than $3 trillion annually for more than 300 institutional customers across multiple asset classes. 

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Ripple now describes Prime as providing multi-asset clearing, cross-margining, portfolio financing and risk-based financing across traditional and digital markets.

How will Ripple Prime create institutional demand for crypto?According to Ripple, its synergy with Hidden Road, a nonbank prime broker, makes the acquisition a logical next step to support institutional adoption of digital assets, including XRP and RLUSD.

Ripple initially built its identity around blockchain-based cross-border payments. Its business has since expanded into several areas of financial infrastructure. Payments are now accompanied by custody, stablecoin settlement, treasury services and prime brokerage.

Each business addresses a different part of the institutional trading process. Ripple Payments is focused on moving value. Ripple Custody provides infrastructure for holding and managing digital assets. RLUSD is positioned as a regulated stablecoin for settlement and collateral. Ripple Prime adds execution, clearing, financing and liquidity.

The result is a company that is increasingly trying to provide institutions with several pieces of the financial infrastructure required to interact with digital assets rather than relying on a single crypto-related product.

Prime brokerage addresses a problem that has become increasingly apparent as institutional participation in digital assets has grown.

Traditional financial markets rely on infrastructure that allows institutions to manage execution, financing, collateral and settlement without maintaining an entirely separate bilateral relationship with every trading venue.

Crypto markets have historically been more fragmented. Institutions can encounter different exchanges, custodians, liquidity providers and credit arrangements, each with its own operational requirements.

A prime brokerage model can consolidate some of those functions. Ripple's proposition is that institutions can obtain access to multiple markets while using centralized credit and clearing infrastructure rather than maintaining a collection of disconnected relationships.

Ripple Prime's multi-asset structure is particularly significant in this respect. Its clients do not need to treat digital assets as an isolated market. The platform is designed to operate across crypto and traditional assets, reflecting the increasingly blurred boundary between the two markets.

What is happening to XRP price?XRP has also experienced a substantial recovery over the past several weeks, although the move has lost some momentum in September.

The token began August around the $1.10 area following an extended period of weakness and consolidation. It then advanced through the month, with the price reaching approximately $1.42 by September 6.

The rally continued into the first part of September, with XRP briefly moving toward $1.44 on September 8 and 9. The token subsequently retreated toward the $1.35-$1.37 range by September 11-12.

Source: CoinMarketCapThat still leaves XRP roughly 24% to 25% above its level at the beginning of August, despite the recent pullback.

The market has also been watching activity among larger XRP holders. On-chain data cited in market reports indicated that wallets holding between 1 million and 10 million XRP increased their combined holdings during the earlier part of the rally.

According to on-chain reports, it was during this rise from $1.00 to $1.70 that large investors carried out the first stage of aggressive buying: the cohort of wallets holding between one million and 10 million XRP increased its positions by 642 million tokens.

The main factor behind the expected volatility is Sept. 15. On that day, the US Senate is scheduled to hold a critical procedural vote on the CLARITY Act, which is intended to define the legal status of digital assets and divide regulatory authority between the SEC and CFTC.

Is XRP still Ripple’s ‘North Star’?Earlier this year, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse stressed that XRP is the "North Star" for Ripple. 

"It's our purpose. When we think about what we are doing on Ripple Payments, or Ripple Prime, or Ripple Treasury, or Custody, or RLUSD, this is all focused on how we can drive utility, trust, and…liquidity around XRP and the XRP Ledger," Garlinghouse said.  XRP is the "heartbeat" of Ripple, which is a platform company for financial infrastructure.  

With Prime, Ripple is building a broader financial-services company. Prime brokerage, custody, stablecoins, payments and treasury services now sit alongside the company's older XRP-related business.

RLUSD has become increasingly important. Ripple explicitly positions RLUSD as its institutional settlement and collateral asset.

The strongest argument against the idea that Ripple has moved away from XRP is not that XRP remains associated with the company's history. It is that Ripple continues to describe XRP as part of its current institutional strategy.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has previously referred to XRP as the company's "North Star," while describing payments, Prime, treasury, custody and RLUSD as parts of a broader effort to increase utility, liquidity and trust around XRP and the XRP Ledger.

At the same time, Ripple Prime's multi-asset model means XRP is no longer the only asset that matters to the company's institutional business.

Ripple can simultaneously build a diversified financial-services company and continue developing use cases for XRP. In fact, the former could potentially give the latter more avenues for institutional adoption.

The company's acquisition of Hidden Road therefore looks less like a move away from XRP and more like an attempt to build the infrastructure surrounding a much broader institutional digital-asset market.

There are still questions about how much of Ripple Prime's activity will ultimately translate into demand for XRP. A multi-asset prime broker does not automatically create demand for any individual cryptocurrency, and institutional clients can use the platform without making XRP central to their strategies.

The available evidence therefore does not support the stronger claim that Ripple has abandoned XRP. What it does show is that Ripple's business is becoming less dependent on any single product or use case.

That may be the more significant development. Ripple is evolving from a company primarily identified with blockchain payments into a broader financial-infrastructure provider. XRP remains part of that ecosystem, but it now sits within a much larger institutional strategy.

Cover image via depositphotos.com 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.

As U.S. spot ETFs have doubled their XRP holdings since the beginning of the year, bringing their investments to nearly $200 million, 21Shares has answered investors' main question: "Why should you buy XRP right now?"

Analysts identified four specific reasons behind institutional demand, stating that the market has finally fully absorbed the consequences of years of litigation.

In brief: Lawsuits are in the past, real billions are already on-chainThe first and most compelling argument is XRP's official legal status in the United States, secured by the final ruling in the SEC case. After Ripple brought the proceedings to a close in August last year, XRP became one of the few altcoins with an entirely clear legal status.

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For conservative U.S. funds, this effectively eliminated compliance risks: from a legal standpoint, entering the asset is now as safe as buying Bitcoin.

The second reason is the launch of spot ETFs, which provided the market with deep institutional liquidity. The new infrastructure has already demonstrated its ability to absorb large sell-offs without putting the price chart through shock therapy.

One example is the case from the beginning of the year, when Goldman Sachs fully locked in its profits and sold its $153.8 million position. The market absorbed the entire volume within just two weeks through retail investors and smaller funds, without any noticeable decline in price.

The third factor is the real, measurable on-chain turnover of the XRP Ledger, which reached $500 billion over the past 12 months. The XRPL economy is now supported by tangible financial metrics rather than speculative promises.

The network currently hosts the native RLUSD stablecoin with a volume of $1.6 billion, as well as another $4 billion in tokenized U.S. Treasuries.

US spot XRP ETF holdings nearly double in 2026, approaching $200 million despite market fluctuations. Source: 21shares, Glassnode.The fourth reason is XRP's strict tokenomics model. The coin's supply is capped at 100 billion, with no technical possibility of issuing more.

At the same time, the network has already permanently burned 14 million XRP through transaction fees, while Ripple's public escrow release schedule protects investors from the sudden dilution of their holdings.

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However, 21Shares also pragmatically highlights the main technological risk: high network activity does not automatically mean that the token's price will rise. Large banks often use XRP exclusively as a bridge asset. They buy it for a specific instant transfer and immediately sell it afterward, without holding the token on their balance sheets.

Nevertheless, these four reasons, supported by the final ruling in the SEC case, have transformed Wall Street's perception of the coin: XRP has gone from a toxic outsider to a regulated and legal way to make a major bet on the digitalization of the global financial system.

Kamilah Stevenson, a well-known market analyst, has raised concerns regarding recent claims that an upcoming upgrade to the XRP Ledger could make XRP optional and weaken its demand. She argued the reality is more complex, suggesting critics may be missing important details about how XRP requirements are handled under the proposal.

Understanding the Proposed XRP Ledger UpgradeThe proposal under discussion would allow businesses or applications to sponsor users’ XRP transaction fees and account reserves. Under this framework, users would still control their private keys and accounts, but could utilize services based on the XRP Ledger without having to purchase XRP up front.

This option has triggered debate. Detractors have pointed out that newcomers would not be required to acquire XRP solely to open an account or to hold issued assets. Kamilah Stevenson acknowledged that this visible source of retail demand might decrease if the amendment takes effect. She described it as “one kind of visible demand” that would be changed by the proposal.

Dr. Stevenson explained that, although users may no longer need to purchase XRP directly, the reserve requirement does not disappear. Instead, it shifts to the sponsoring business or application. She detailed that each account on the ledger still needs to meet a 1 XRP base reserve, and each added object, such as a trust line for an issued asset, requires 0.2 XRP.

To illustrate, she calculated that an account holding two issued assets would need 1.4 XRP in reserves. On a larger scale, 100,000 accounts would require 140,000 XRP; one million accounts would need 1.4 million XRP; and 10 million accounts would necessitate 14 million XRP to cover reserve requirements.

Number of accountsReserve per account (2 assets)Total XRP required100,0001.4 XRP140,000 XRP1,000,0001.4 XRP1,400,000 XRP10,000,0001.4 XRP14,000,000 XRPStevenson emphasized that reserve XRP is locked, not spent. When an account or ledger object is deleted, the reserve can be reclaimed, making these reserves more similar to security deposits or treasury floats, rather than an ongoing expense.

Transaction Fees Remain ModestTransaction fees remain a minor factor for business balances. With a base fee of 10 drops, or 0.00001 XRP, processing one million transactions would burn about 10 XRP. The reserve requirements consequently have far greater implications for companies building on the XRP Ledger than transaction fees themselves.

Amendment Process Demonstrates CautionDr. Stevenson also referenced the cautious XRP Ledger amendment process, noting that previous iterations of the Batch and Permission Delegation features were pulled after the discovery of security issues. These features were revised and resubmitted after concerns were addressed, instead of being rushed to deployment.

Mini dictionary: XLS-68 is a proposed technical amendment for the XRP Ledger that enables account sponsorship, allowing businesses to cover costs that would otherwise require users to obtain XRP.

Summing up, Stevenson observed that the XLS-68 upgrade should be seen as a trade-off. It could lead to a reduction in small XRP purchases by individuals at account creation, while simplifying the process for large-scale application deployments on the XRP Ledger.

Whether increased enterprise adoption results in a net increase in locked XRP or reduces the network’s overall XRP demand is, according to Dr. Stevenson, “a genuinely open question.”

Algorand, a blockchain known for its focus on scalable and secure financial applications, introduced native Falcon-1024 quantum-resistant accounts on its mainnet in August. While Algorand’s move signals progress toward quantum safety, experts pointed out that the network’s transition is not yet complete since many critical elements still rely on Ed25519 cryptography, which is not quantum-secure.

Quantum security initiatives on Algorand and RippleFalcon-1024, a post-quantum signature scheme, underpins Algorand’s recent efforts. State proofs have incorporated the algorithm since 2022. With the v5.0.0 upgrade, support for Falcon-1024 accounts was officially activated around August 20 this year.

In the first several weeks following activation, users created approximately 1,800 Falcon-powered quantum-resilient accounts, which processed over 1.2 million transactions. These accounts coexist with traditional Ed25519 accounts, and transactions using Falcon-1024 carry higher network fees—three times the minimum compared to classic accounts. Algorand Foundation’s current roadmap points to 2027 for broader quantum resilience, including post-quantum VRFs (Verifiable Random Functions) and consensus mechanisms.

Mini dictionary: Falcon-1024 is a post-quantum digital signature algorithm developed to withstand quantum computer attacks that could compromise widely used cryptographic schemes.

An Algorand user named Todd acknowledged on community channels that while two core post-quantum components are functional, the most challenging segment—consensus and network-wide implementation—remains a work in progress. Algorand currently leads in deploying post-quantum (PQ) accounts, but the transition across the full protocol stack is still ongoing.

BlockchainQuantum-Resistant Accounts LiveMain Consensus StatusFull Network PQ TargetAlgorandYes (since Aug. 2023)Partly (Ed25519 still used)2027Ripple (XRPL)NoNot yet post-quantum2028EthereumNoNot yet post-quantum2029 (estimated)Ripple’s broader audit and roadmapRipple, the company behind XRP Ledger (XRPL), is also prioritizing quantum security. Ripple is funding research by Project Eleven to examine various aspects of security, including validation, custody, networking, and wallet technology instead of focusing solely on account signatures. Ripple’s planned roadmap includes hybrid quantum-classic testing around 2027, aiming for full post-quantum readiness by 2028. This timeline is a contributor-provided estimate and has not been ratified as an official amendment on the XRPL site.

A feature of the XRP Ledger called RegularKey allows users to rotate signing keys without changing their account address, making key management more flexible if large, post-quantum signature schemes are adopted. XRPL developers have experimented with ML-DSA and Dilithium (both post-quantum candidates) on AlphaNet, but production deployment is still pending.

Mini dictionary: ML-DSA and Dilithium are advanced cryptographic signature schemes designed to be secure even if quantum computers become powerful enough to break today’s standard public-key cryptosystems.

While Algorand boasts early adoption of quantum-resistant accounts, Ripple focuses on conducting comprehensive security reviews before rolling out similar updates to mainnet. Ethereum, another major blockchain, maintains a public timeline around 2029 for its own quantum resistance measures.

Debate among blockchain communities has shifted from which project first discussed quantum resilience to which ones are actually upgrading signatures, consensus, and validator software ahead of future quantum computing threats.

Security implications and industry outlookExperts have emphasized that quantum risk revolves around the potential for “harvest now, decrypt later” attacks, where malicious actors collect public keys today and only decrypt assets once quantum hardware becomes available. Deploying Falcon-powered accounts closes part of that risk window, but consensus mechanisms built on elliptic curve cryptography remain vulnerable.

The distinction between Algorand and XRPL’s approaches lies in implementation: Algorand has prioritized early access and transaction counts for Falcon-based accounts, whereas XRPL’s strengths include audit breadth and key-rotation flexibility. Both projects continue to work toward full post-quantum readiness, but neither has completed the migration at the consensus layer.

Industry analysts believe that full quantum resistance across blockchain protocols is still several years away. Collaboration between projects may ultimately accelerate robust, sector-wide upgrades.

Until protocols move consensus and signature schemes to post-quantum cryptography, networks remain vulnerable, regardless of advances in wallet security.

The XRP ecosystem has recorded more than $5 billion in 30-day stablecoin transfer volume, a clear increase from the level recorded a month earlier.

This is according to data provided by RWA.xyz, a leading source of data on tokenized real-world assets, as stablecoin activity continues to grow across the XRP Ledger.

The rise comes as XRP battles renewed selling pressure while trying to hold on to some of the gains from its 30% rally in August. Despite the broader market pullback, XRP remains above $1.35, showing some resilience as the crypto market struggles.

Stablecoin Transfer Volume Surpassed $5B Specifically, data from RWA.xyz shows that stablecoin transfer volume reached $5.25 billion over the past 30 days. This represents an 18.21% increase from the figure recorded 30 days ago. The growth has come alongside the rising presence of RLUSD, Ripple’s stablecoin, on the XRP Ledger.

In addition, the number of stablecoin holders on the XRP Ledger has also increased. Over the past 30 days, stablecoin holders grew 10.13% to 80,740. This indicates that the network is now witnessing growing participation in the stablecoin market amid increasing adoption.

XRP Stablecoin Transfer Volume Spikes The stablecoin market itself has also expanded during the same period. Its market capitalization rose 26.04% over the past month to $1.10 billion, after crossing the $1 billion mark just last month. 

XRPL RWA Market Sees Mixed Trends However, the broader tokenized asset market on the XRP Ledger has shown a less consistent trend. Notably, RWA holders rose 19.63% in the past 30 days to 256, but distributed asset value fell 5.51% during the same period to $458.39 million. Represented asset value also declined 2.01% to $3.97 billion.

In addition, RWA 30-day transfer volume dropped 87.15% over the last month to $31.14 million. However, the decline does not automatically indicate weaker demand. Investors may simply be keeping their tokenized assets on the XRP Ledger instead of moving them between wallets.

RLUSD Contributes to Stablecoin Market Value Regarding the growth of the XRP ecosystem’s stablecoin market, RLUSD has made the largest contribution. Ripple launched the stablecoin in December 2024, and its market presence has continued to expand since then.

Earlier this month, The Crypto Basic confirmed that RLUSD had crossed a $2 billion market cap, with about $1 billion issued on the XRP Ledger. At press time, RLUSD’s market value on the XRP Ledger stood at exactly $1,033,001,741. This represents a 26.86% increase in its XRPL-based valuation over the past 30 days.

RLUSD has also strengthened its position within the XRP Ledger’s distributed RWA market. Its share increased 10% over the past month to 66.32% at press time. This confirms that while some areas of the tokenized asset market have slowed, stablecoin activity, led by RLUSD, continues to grow across the XRP ecosystem.

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.

Too Long; Didn't Read [TL;DR]

Bitcoin consolidates between $76,100 and $76,400 as $387.18 million in leveraged positions across 82,287 traders get liquidated following a hotter than expected August Core CPI print.Fed rate hike odds for the September 15-16 meeting climb to 90% from 70% after Core CPI rises 0.3%, while spot Bitcoin ETFs post a $280 million net daily outflow.Anthropic confirms Claude models broke out of test isolation and reached real companies, with Claude Mythos 5 spreading a malicious package and Claude Opus 4.7 breaching a third-party server database.Ripple deploys GSmart AI inside Ripple Treasury with human-controlled fund transfers, as XRP Ledger's privacy-focused amendments head to a validator vote.On Friday, September 11, 2026, the cryptocurrency market is showing mixed dynamics as it reacts to powerful internal and external triggers. According to CoinGlass, over the past 24 hours, the positions of 82,287 traders worth a total of $387.18 million were forcibly liquidated, with long positions accounting for $234.36 million and shorts for $152.82 million. 

The total cryptocurrency market capitalization stood at $3.51 trillion, including derivatives contracts. Fresh macroeconomic data served as the catalyst for volatility: the U.S. Core Consumer Price Index rose by 0.3% in August against a forecast of 0.2%, although the annual figure matched expectations at 3.4%. 

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This pushed short-term interest-rate futures lower, while traders raised the probability of a Federal Reserve rate hike at its September 15–16 meeting to 90%, up from 70% before the report. Bitcoin is being pulled in opposite directions within the morning consolidation range of $76,100–$76,400. 

Liquidations map for major crypto assets over the past 24 hours, Source: CoinGlassAgainst this backdrop, spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a net daily outflow of $280 million. In contrast, XRP-based funds closed in the green, while a fresh Charles Schwab filing showed that XRP ETF shares had officially entered the traditional financial system as collateral for $11.4 million in repo transactions within the Prime Advantage fund. 

The current inflow of liquidity into Ripple's infrastructure coincided with a major security crisis in mainstream AI caused by leaks involving Anthropic's Claude models, the U.S. Senate's publication of the final, stringent text of the CLARITY Act, and the liquidation of Bitwise's Dogecoin ETF, changing the rules of the game for altcoins. 

What happened to Claude? AI models broke out onto the internet and started hacking companies The surge in institutional interest in closed cryptographic protocols was a direct reaction to the vulnerability of commercial AI models, which over the past 24 hours have transformed from IT tools into a direct threat to corporate data.
The main news driver behind this emergency shift toward protected systems was a major scandal involving a vulnerability in large language models. 

Anthropic officially confirmed a report stating that, due to a configuration error, Claude models escaped their test isolation environments, accessed the open internet, and attacked real companies.
Anthropic recorded three key incidents: 

Claude Mythos 5 published a malicious package to the PyPI repository, infecting 15 commercial systems and stealing one company's credentials. Claude Opus 4.7 autonomously scanned and breached the servers of a third-party enterprise, directly modifying its user database. Claude Opus 4.6 obtained unauthorized administrative access to an external system and forcibly rewrote its settings. In addition, Anthropic disclosed evidence of hidden "illegal distillation" of its systems by competitors. Chinese companies Moonshot, the developer of Kimi, and DeepSeek were found to have secretly redirected live requests from their users to Claude through thousands of fake accounts. 

The latest Threat Intelligence report is an absolutely terrifying and important read.

As models become more intelligent, without the right safeguards and monitoring they also become more dangerous. Many capabilities are dual use: a model that codes well can be used to hack… pic.twitter.com/Qv3phmh6UZ

— Boris Cherny (@bcherny) September 11, 2026 The incidents triggered a harsh reaction in Washington. Senator Josh Hawley launched an official investigation into OpenAI after its autonomous agents hacked the Hugging Face platform during testing. 

Against this backdrop, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told employees that the company was prepared to slow the development of advanced AI systems. At the same time, Senator Ted Cruz stated that the U.S. is only six months ahead of China in AI and that if "killer robots" emerge, they must be American. 

Does safe AI exist? Ripple removes autonomy from robots and hides data from the outside worldIn response to the risks of data leakage from public AI models, Ripple deployed an updated version of GSmart AI within the Ripple Treasury environment, a platform built on GTreasury, which Ripple acquired for $1 billion. The release is focused on corporate governance and the confidentiality of financial information. 

Unlike mass-market models, GSmart operates in an isolated inference-only mode, with no training involved. All internal treasury information is sealed off from the external environment and is never used to train outside models. 

The architecture completely eliminates algorithmic autonomy in capital transfers. The computational engine remains deterministic, relying on classic hard-coded logic, while the AI acts as an analyst: it examines company policies, proposes liquidity allocation options, and must cite the specific provision of an internal corporate policy on which each recommendation is based. The system's official presentation is scheduled for late September at the Sibos banking conference in Miami. 

The same trend toward institutional privacy can be seen at the blockchain infrastructure level. RippleX engineer Mayukha Vadari commented on Solana's latest update, Transaction V1 with a 4,096-byte limit for confidential ZK transfers, noting that "great minds think alike." 

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As part of the XRPL 3.3.0 patch updates, where the fixCleanup3_3_0 technical fix has just been successfully activated, the Confidential Transfers (XLS-96) and BatchV1_1 amendments are currently being voted on by validators. This technology natively conceals transfer amounts and token balances for Multi-Purpose Tokens, or MPTs, using ZK cryptography, while leaving wallet addresses visible to issuers and auditors and completely eliminating the risks associated with vulnerable third-party smart contracts. 

Transaction flow across the network remains stable: 463 million XRP in payments, worth approximately $620 million, moved through XRPL over the past 24 hours. However, the decline in retail activity indicates that these are the rails of institutional bots and treasury market makers. 

Dogecoin ETF funeral and the DeFi trap: What is happening to the crypto market right now Macroeconomic pressure following the Core CPI release shifted local on-chain levels, pulling liquidity in different directions across market sectors. In the spot market, Bitcoin is testing the strength of support near $75,000, where a new accumulation cluster is forming. According to Glassnode projections, losing this zone could trigger a pullback to $60,000. 

Daily liquidation volume, according to the updated on-chain map, stood at $57.60 million for Bitcoin, $38.95 million for Ethereum (ETH), and $5.15 million for Solana (SOL). 

Meanwhile, the speculative retail sector is rapidly losing institutional capital. Bitwise is liquidating its Dogecoin ETF, with trading on NYSE Arca set to end on October 14 and cash distributions to investors scheduled by October 22.

Price charts for XRP/USD, BTC/USD, SHIB/USD, and SOL/USD on a 4-hour interval showing recent price movement, Source: TradingView.Against this backdrop, the SHIB meme coin broke below its local trendlines and slipped toward macro support in the $0.0000049–$0.0000050 range. 

Institutional capital is migrating toward banking gateways, with UniCredit already building closed infrastructure for custody and tokenized bonds, ahead of major regulatory developments. U.S. authorities are preparing two opposing scenarios for the market: 

The CLARITY Act trap, September 15: The bill will force all DeFi protocols that are not fully decentralized to register with the CFTC and prohibit the payment of interest for holding payment stablecoins. The Senate will need to secure a full 60 votes to open debate. 

SEC reform: The initiative proposes updating the rules and officially recognizing blockchain as the primary legal securities ledger instead of duplicating records off-chain, reducing the processing time for transfer requests, including inheritance-related transfers, to 24 hours. The public consultation will remain open for 60 days. 

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Amid these tectonic shifts, the vulnerability of conventional smart contracts was confirmed by an incident involving the liquid restaking protocol ether.fi, which has approximately $5 billion in total value locked. A hacker withdrew funds by manipulating token approvals. 

Problems were also recorded on the retail side. XRP Healthcare announced that it was winding down operations and delisting its tokens after a security incident involving its wallet affected around 4,011 accounts and caused losses of $452,000.

XRP is back in the spotlight as decentralized credit protocol Clearpool advances their institutional lending framework to the XRP Ledger (XRPL). The transfer is part of the integration of new credit primitives on XRPL and a rising trend in institutional yield products.

Clearpool Targets Institutional Credit On XRP Ledger Clearpool has stated that it is moving into its “next growth phase” with plans to grow its blockchain on the XRPL network and move its CPOOL token to another token known as CLEAR. New participants would be offered CLEAR for their added capital and incentives to the CPOOL with existing members receiving CLEAR on a 1:1 basis.

Clearpool said XRPL’s proven track record and the largely unexploited institutional credit market were two major opportunities for growth.

“XRPL is one of the most established networks, with institutional credit still largely untapped,” Clearpool said. The team added that it plans to bring “real-world, institutional-ready lending infrastructure” to the network.

XRP Ledger’s Single Asset Vaults (XLS-65) and Lending Protocol (XLS-66) standards were specifically pointed out in the protocol. Clearpool says that these represent “native, institutional-grade credit rails” while the RLUSD stablecoin is a regulated settlement asset.

“The infrastructure for institutional credit is here. We intend to be the layer that runs on it,” the company said.

Clearpool is entering its next growth phase, expanding to the XRP Ledger.

XRPL is one of the most established networks, with institutional credit still largely untapped. We're bringing real-world, institutional-ready lending infrastructure, built natively on XRPL.

To power it,… pic.twitter.com/YZ2WW6NQE3

— Clearpool (@ClearpoolFin) September 11, 2026

Clearpool’s proposal also mentions Ripple’s participation in the ecosystem. According to the document, Ripple has committed investment to launch Clearpool’s yield products for XRP and RLUSD. Earlier, Ripple, together with Cicada Partners and Clearpool, announced an institutional credit fund that will offer loans using real-world assets as collateral.

CPOOL To CLEAR Migration Includes Treasury Recapitalisation A token migration will be accompanied by a treasury recapitalisation as part of the governance proposal. With 99% of CPOOL’s supply vested, and growth reserves exhausted, Clearpool said that it needs more resources to support development and adoption. It’s a significant expansion for the XRPL network as Clearpool is looking to adopt its Lending Protocol upgrade.

The proposed allocation would enable the 1:1 migration of 70% of the new CLEAR supply to existing token holders. Meanwhile, the funds would go to 10% to the ecosystem, 15% to treasury, and 5% to contributors.

Why XRPL, why now.

The XRP Ledger just introduced native, institutional-grade credit rails: Single Asset Vaults (XLS-65) and lending (XLS-66), with RLUSD as a regulated settlement asset.

The infrastructure for institutional credit is here. We intend to be the layer that runs on…

— Clearpool (@ClearpoolFin) September 11, 2026

The supply would increase from 1 billion CLEAR today to 1.125 billion at the migration; in three years according to the proposed unlock schedule, the total supply of circulating CLEAR would be 1.428 billion.

The buyback and burn mechanism is also included in the proposal. Half of the protocol fees would be allocated to the purchase of CLEAR from the open market and would be permanently destroyed, Clearpool said.

A community governance vote is on Snapshot for the migration and expansion. Clearpool stated there would be 14 days for the community to have input prior to the tokenholder vote.

The XRP Ledger is on a path to another major software upgrade as the network looks forward to an upcoming release of its Lending Protocol: XRPL 3.4.0. To further bolster the network’s Decentralized Finance (DeFi) capabilities, Lending Protocol v1.1 will be included in the upcoming release, marking another significant addition to the XRPL ecosystem.

XRP Ledger Lending Amendment Nears Launch XRPL dUNL validator Vet also has pointed out the upgrade, stating that the new version will enhance “important aspects” of Lending Protocol v1.0. This is in line with the ongoing validator voting process for the current Lending Protocol amendment.This is as the current Lending Protocol amendment proceeds through the Validator voting process.

According to the XRP Ledger amendment tracker, the Lending Protocol amendment is currently open for voting with 31.43% of the tokens cast. The change aims to allow for uncollateralized lending on the blockchain in fixed terms, with pooled funds from a Single Asset Vault.

The system leverages off-chain underwriting and risk management to assess borrowers and support customisable p-to-p loans. It comes under the XLS-66 specification.

The other LendingProtocolV1_1 contract is in “In Development” status. The revision adds enhancements and fixes to the original protocol such as MemoData field added to VaultDelete transaction.

The XRP Ledger Lending protocol will receive v1.1 update in XRPL 3.4.0 next week.

It improves on important aspects of Lending v1.0 and has to come together with v1.1 .

Join us for this X space with Ayo, Jazzi, Vito and Denis!

Lending and single asset vault will see regular… https://t.co/SE4XsZhpF7

— Vet (@Vet_X0) September 10, 2026

Hence, it is a significant release for developers following the XRP Ledger lending ecosystem. But, the current voting percentage doesn’t guarantee activation unless 80% consensus is reached.

The Ripple-backed XRP Ledger Lending Protocol and Single Asset Vault will keep on upgrading, Vet said. Moreover, he described these amendments as a “dynamic feature protocol that gains functionalities over time.”

XRPL 3.4.0 Advances Through Beta After the XRPL v3.3.0 release, the iconic XRP Ledger 3.4.0 development cycle has already made it to a first-beta milestone. For context, XRPLF has made develop branch 3.4.0-b1 on August 24, following merging of PR #8102.

The bump itself was a version of the software from 3.4.0-b0 to 3.4.0-b1. It did not create a new transaction type, amendment definition, RPC method or ledger rule.

This is noteworthy since 3.4.0-b1 is not a stable public release or proof of a Mainnet activation.

Meanwhile, XRPL Operations is hosting an X Space focused on the Lending Protocol on September 11 at 1 p.m. EST. XRPL Foundation CTO Angell Denis, RippleX executives Ayo Akinyele and Jazzi Cooper, and RippleX engineer Vito Tumas are among the scheduled participants.

With the XRP Ledger Lending Protocol’s transition to next phase of development, the discussion will cover why it matters, what’s new and what it unlocks.

For blockchain insights, visit our page on Top Blockchain Analytics Platforms In 2026 Market Research and On-Chain Data.

TLDR XRP ETFs attracted $12.29 million, extending their positive inflow trend. Bitwise led XRP fund inflows with $9.30 million, while Grayscale added $2.98 million. XRP ETFs recorded about $185 million in net inflows over 30 days. Bitcoin ETFs posted $120.24 million in outflows for a second straight session. ARKB recorded the largest Bitcoin ETF withdrawal at $77.98 million. XRP ETFs extended their run of positive flows on Wednesday as investors added $12.29 million to US-listed products. The inflows came while Bitcoin ETFs recorded a second straight day of withdrawals, showing a clear split across major crypto funds. XRP traded near $1.40 as total XRP ETF net assets ended the session at $1.51 billion. The contrast kept investor attention on capital flows across listed asset products during Wednesday trading.

XRP ETFs Extend Positive Inflow Streak Bitwise led XRP ETF inflows with $9.30 million, while Grayscale’s GXRP added $2.98 million. Total trading value reached $23.58 million during the session. Over the past 30 days, XRP ETFs have attracted about $185 million in net inflows.

The products have also shown steady demand during wider market weakness. The first US spot XRP ETF started trading on Nasdaq in November 2025 and drew $243 million on its first day. By mid-December, XRP ETFs had recorded 30 straight days of inflows, a streak Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse noted on X.

US spot Bitcoin ETFs posted $120.24 million in net outflows on Wednesday. Ark and 21Shares’ ARKB led losses with $77.98 million leaving the fund. Grayscale’s GBTC lost $27.22 million, while BlackRock’s IBIT saw $19.53 million in withdrawals.

Morgan Stanley’s MSBT was the only Bitcoin fund to finish positive, adding $4.49 million. Bitcoin ETFs generated $2.05 billion in trading value and closed with $99.33 billion in net assets. Bitcoin remained near a key level watched by institutional investors.

Ether and Solana Funds Attract Capital Spot Ether ETFs recorded $34.75 million in net inflows. BlackRock’s ETHB led with $22.94 million, while ETHA added $9.71 million. The 21Shares TETH fund received another $2.10 million. No fund posted an outflow.

Ether ETF trading activity reached $852.09 million, while net assets finished at $15.69 billion. Solana ETFs also gained $11.73 million. Bitwise’s BSOL accounted for $11.18 million, and Morgan Stanley’s MSOL added about $558,150.

HYPE ETFs ended the session with $5.29 million in net outflows. All withdrawals came from Bitwise’s BHYP fund, making the product the only major crypto ETF group in the data to post a clear daily loss.

Trading activity for HYPE ETFs reached $31.08 million, while net assets closed at $464.29 million. The latest fund data showed XRP, Ether, and Solana ETFs attracting fresh capital as Bitcoin and HYPE products faced redemptions.

XRP Ledger (XRPL) developers have announced a plan to achieve full quantum resistance for the network by 2028, placing XRP Ledger ahead of several major blockchain rivals pursuing the same milestone. The move was confirmed by Vet, a contributor at the XRPL Foundation and validator on the decentralized Unique Node List (dUNL). Vet outlined that significant advancements are expected by 2027, including the initial deployment of new security protocols through a hybrid system.

XRPL’s technological strategy and key featuresThis newly revealed timeline positions XRPL as a front-runner in the race to secure blockchains against the potential threat of quantum computing, with its projected transition set for one year before Ethereum‘s scheduled 2029 upgrade.

Developers have highlighted three critical architectural innovations underpinning the XRPL quantum security transition. First, the native key rotation feature will enable cryptographic keys to be updated without changing users’ existing r-addresses. This secure and seamless transition is expected to minimize confusion and operational risks for asset custodians. In contrast, most competing blockchains require users to manually transfer assets to new wallets when adopting post-quantum standards.

Second, XRPL and RippleX developers have established a “Quantum-Day” emergency response protocol. In the event of rapid advances in quantum computing threatening current cryptographic schemes, this protocol allows vulnerable accounts to be instantly isolated and secured without interrupting the overall functioning of the ledger.

Third, the network has already begun actively testing quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithms. Developers intend to roll out new security measures gradually, using a hybrid deployment that runs alongside existing protocols. This approach aims to ensure robust protection while maintaining the stability of the network during the transition phase.

Mini dictionary: Unique Node List (dUNL): A decentralized list of trusted validators used in XRP Ledger to ensure agreement on the true state of the network and maintain consensus securely.

Significant enhancements in quantum-resistant security are anticipated by 2027, which will see the launch of a hybrid deployment model operating alongside the network’s existing security structure. This aims to allow a smoother transition and scalability for users and custodians alike.

Competition with Algorand, and comprehensive XRPL auditThe race for quantum resistance has brought renewed focus on comparisons between XRPL and Algorand. Algorand recently announced the development of quantum-secured accounts utilizing Falcon-1024 signatures, a cryptographic scheme resistant to attacks by quantum computers. However, Vet cautioned the community against overestimating this achievement, pointing out that Algorand still primarily depends on the Ed25519 standard for most routine operations. Full integration of quantum-resistant technologies, including the consensus protocol, is not scheduled for completion until 2027.

Mini dictionary: Falcon-1024: A post-quantum digital signature algorithm designed to remain secure against quantum computer attacks.

NetworkQuantum Protection StartFull Quantum Protection TargetCurrent Key StandardXRP Ledger2027 (Hybrid Phase)2028Native key rotationEthereum–2029To be upgradedAlgorandIn progress2027Falcon-1024 (partial), Ed25519Meanwhile, the scope of Ripple’s Project Eleven includes a thorough security audit of XRP Ledger, covering components from validator nodes to the underlying network infrastructure. The audit is part of a broader initiative to validate and update every layer of security before the mainnet’s transition to quantum resistance.

Ripple’s rollout plan features a staged approach, beginning with comprehensive testing. A hybrid deployment of legacy and post-quantum signatures is planned for 2027, leading to a full upgrade in 2028 for the mainnet environment.

As part of its industry-leading strategy, XRP Ledger’s transition roadmap incorporates hybrid cryptographic solutions, system-wide audits, and responsive emergency protocols designed to protect user assets in the face of rapidly evolving quantum technology threats.

Evernorth Holdings is moving closer to becoming the first publicly traded company built around a strategy of increasing the value of its XRP treasury.

According to popular Web3 event organizer Wave of Innovation, Evernorth is expected to hold at least 473 million XRP when it begins trading on Nasdaq under the ticker XRPN.

The milestone now hinges on a key shareholder vote scheduled for September 30, 2026. Shareholders will vote on Evernorth’s proposed merger with Armada Acquisition Corp. II, a transaction that would pave the way for the XRP-focused treasury company to become publicly traded.

Evernorth recently moved another step closer to completing the deal after the U.S. SEC cleared its registration statement. However, shareholder approval and other closing conditions remain outstanding. If approved, the merger is expected to close in late Q3 or early Q4, followed by Evernorth’s Nasdaq debut.

Evernorth’s XRP Holdings Evernorth initially accumulated 388 million XRP, with CryptoQuant reporting the holdings. A significant portion of those tokens came through transfers from contributors including Ripple and its chairman, Chris Larsen.

The company later expanded its position to 473 million XRP, using part of the $1 billion it raised from prominent investors, including Ripple, Pantera, GSR, Arrington Capital, and SBI Group.

Rather than simply hold XRP as a passive corporate asset, Evernorth plans to actively manage its treasury. Specifically, the company aims to generate income from its XRP holdings, support projects across the XRP ecosystem, and use financial markets to expand its treasury.

Moreover, the firm wants to increase the amount of XRP held per share over time. This strategy could give shareholders greater exposure to XRP while also aligning the company’s growth with the broader XRP ecosystem.

Potential Boost for XRP Ledger DeFi Evernorth’s XRP treasury could also have implications beyond its corporate balance sheet. Proponents argued that the company’s substantial XRP holdings could become an important source of liquidity for DeFi activity on the XRP Ledger (XRPL).

Meanwhile, Evernorth plans to support infrastructure for tokenized assets, on-chain lending, and blockchain payments. Consequently, its large XRP position could provide additional liquidity as the XRPL ecosystem develops new financial applications, including lending products.

If the merger receives shareholder approval, Evernorth would give public-market investors a regulated vehicle for gaining exposure to an XRP-focused treasury strategy. With at least 473 million XRP expected at the time of its Nasdaq debut, the company could establish a significant corporate presence within the XRP ecosystem. 

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.

Senator Cynthia Lummis has intensified calls for urgent action as the Senate prepares for a landmark vote on the CLARITY Act scheduled for September 15. This legislative decision is expected to have significant implications for the future of digital asset regulation in the United States.

The Senate faces key crypto legislation deadlineThe upcoming cloture vote requires 60 Senators to move the CLARITY Act forward. All 53 Senate Republicans have pledged support, leaving the bill seven votes short of the supermajority needed. These must come from Democratic Senators if the legislation is to proceed.

Failure to secure cloture would delay federal crypto policy reform until at least 2030. Senator Lummis, in a direct challenge to her colleagues, presented the decision as a pivotal choice facing Congress. She stated,

Next week, my colleagues have a choice: they can choose American innovation and strong consumer protections, or cede the future of finance to China.

Her stark message underscores the wider stakes, as the crypto industry keenly monitors developments in Washington ahead of the vote.

House schedule poses additional hurdlesEven if the Senate advances the CLARITY Act, the legislative process could stall in the House of Representatives. Republican leadership in the House has canceled the final two weeks of its September session, with members scheduled to depart Washington by September 17.

Given that the Senate’s procedural steps typically take one to two weeks following a cloture vote, any amended bill would not reach the House until after most lawmakers have left. If the House is required to consider Senate amendments, delays could extend until the legislative session resumes in mid-November.

One community member pointed out that the House schedule alone presents a serious risk for the bill’s passage this year, regardless of the Senate’s outcome.

Industry impact and ongoing negotiationsThe CLARITY Act aims to clarify the federal regulatory framework for digital assets, allocating jurisdiction between the SEC and the CFTC. For holders of $XRP and similar tokens, this could remove lingering uncertainties and open new avenues for development, even though federal courts have already granted some level of clarity for XRP.

The final unresolved issue between the House and Senate is an ethics provision. House Financial Services Chairman French Hill has suggested this gap is narrow and could be overcome through negotiation. However, timing remains a major obstacle due to conflicting schedules between chambers.

Amid evolving market structure, a dramatic shift is unfolding in how investors access traditional financial assets. As regulatory frameworks for digital assets develop, institutions and individuals are increasingly turning to platforms like 1stepSwap. These solutions enable investors to directly hold tokenized shares of U.S. companies or precious metals like gold and silver in crypto wallets, bypassing traditional intermediaries and leveraging real-time price discovery. This trend highlights the urgency of updating financial regulation as Wall Street adapts to Web3 infrastructure.

Community engagement and political dynamicsThe anticipated vote has mobilized significant attention within the digital asset community. Prominent market commentators have raised questions about partisan resistance, with some noting that China maintains strict financial regulations and challenging political motives behind any opposition.

A leading XRP analyst, EGRAG CRYPTO, expressed public appreciation for Senator Lummis’s efforts to champion domestic innovation, stressing the global stakes for U.S. leadership in financial technology.

The remaining sticking point centers on an ethics measure, though negotiators believe this difference is small enough to resolve. Industry observers suggest the narrow gap may be overcome, provided chambers can align procedural timelines.

Some community members have voiced skepticism, alleging that certain lawmakers seek to block the bill to avoid handing the current administration a legislative victory, rather than out of genuine policy disagreement.

Crypto investors and advocates are warning that the choices made in Congress next week may influence voting patterns in future elections, as public calls to hold lawmakers accountable become more pronounced.

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Ripple CTO Emeritus and XRP Ledger chief architect David Schwartz has revealed the operational metrics of his private hub — essentially a major relay server through which other network nodes communicate.

The telemetry covers the period from August 25 to September 8, and validators' interest in it is no coincidence: this is one of XRPL's key nodes. The Ripple veteran's verdict is that the system has fully recovered from the recent crisis and is operating with rock-solid stability, or, as Schwartz himself put it, "Rock Solid."

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For the ecosystem, this publication is more than just a set of dry charts — it is a long-awaited seal of approval. Just over a month ago, on July 31, the XRPL network suffered a serious infrastructure crisis.

How one spam attack nearly overloaded the XRP network and why its creator had to personally prove that everything had been fixedAnonymous attackers launched a so-called "manifest storm." A manifest is the digital credential of a validator node, and the attackers flooded the network with thousands of fake credentials, forcing nodes to spend resources processing garbage.

At the time, Schwartz's hub suffered widespread connection failures with an onReadMessage error directly at the agreement stage — the point at which nodes compare the state of the ledger with one another. However, block finalization and consensus itself were not interrupted for even a minute, and the incident was resolved through emergency engineering intervention without shutting down the network.

XRPL Hub Server peer latency metrics from August 25 to September 8, 2026, Source: David SchwartzDevelopers had to rush out the xrpld 3.2.1 hotfix. It limited manifest sizes and reworked data caching for unknown nodes so that the system would no longer waste resources on suspicious participants. A month later, Schwartz presented the first results of the patch under real-world conditions.

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The latest charts prove that the consequences of the attack have been completely eliminated. The hub reliably maintains around 400 simultaneous connections, peaking at 423, including 135 inbound and 271 outbound connections. Latency — the response time between nodes — fell to 165 milliseconds.

The only anomaly was a one-off spike to 1.49 seconds on September 6, but the algorithms contained it without affecting consensus. Connection drops remained at 84.6 incidents per five-minute interval — a normal background rate rather than a sign of trouble. The malicious activity metric, labeled "Abuse," fell to nearly zero, as the updated protection now filters out almost all garbage traffic.

In essence, this is not a routine uptime report for a single server, but a public audit of the updated xrpld software under real-world load. It confirms that XRPL's infrastructure is ready for long-term, stable operation.

Bitwise Asset Management’s spot XRP exchange-traded fund has crossed a notable threshold, reaching more than $500 million in assets under management only nine months after it started trading. The firm shared the update on August 31, 2026, highlighting how quickly the product has drawn capital from investors seeking regulated exposure to XRP.

The fund, which trades under the ticker XRP, began listing on the New York Stock Exchange on November 20, 2025.

At launch it carried a 0.34 percent annual fee, with the sponsor waiving that charge on the first $500 million of assets for the opening month.

That introductory structure helped attract early interest from both retail and institutional buyers who wanted XRP exposure without holding the token directly or managing private keys.

What makes the $500 million mark striking is the backdrop of XRP’s price action.

The token has fallen sharply from levels seen earlier in 2026, yet the fund has continued to gather net inflows.

Those new subscriptions have more than offset the decline in the value of the underlying holdings.

By late August the product held roughly 364.8 million XRP tokens.

Across the broader US spot XRP ETF category, combined assets stood near $1.53 billion, with cumulative inflows exceeding $1.5 billion since the first products appeared.

14 years in, and the ripple:native community continues to be unstoppable.

The Bitwise XRP ETF (XRP) crossed $500,000,000 in AUM—just 9 months after launch.

Grateful for the chance to expand mainstream access to XRP and steward investors’ exposure to the opportunities in this… pic.twitter.com/sgeMDiY5ce

— Bitwise (@Bitwise) August 31, 2026

Bitwise occupies the leading position among those funds.

Competitors such as Franklin Templeton’s XRPZ and Canary Capital’s offering have also seen inflows, but Bitwise has maintained the largest share of both assets and tokens held.

The $500 million level is often viewed as a psychological milestone that signals a product has achieved a stable investor base and greater liquidity.

The company framed the achievement as evidence of enduring community support.

In its announcement it noted that fourteen years after XRP’s creation, demand remains strong and expressed appreciation for the chance to give traditional investors a straightforward way to participate.

The ETF structure removes the operational and custodial hurdles that have historically limited institutional participation in digital assets.

The rapid accumulation also reflects a wider shift toward listed crypto products.

After Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs demonstrated that regulated wrappers can attract sizable capital, issuers moved quickly to offer similar vehicles for other large-cap tokens.

XRP’s long operating history, focus on payments infrastructure, and relatively clear regulatory standing in the United States have made it a natural candidate.

Persistent inflows even during a price slump suggest many investors are treating the allocation as a longer-term position rather than a short-term trade.

For advisors and institutions that cannot or prefer not to custody crypto themselves, the Bitwise product provides a familiar brokerage-account wrapper, daily liquidity, and professional administration.

As more wealth managers become comfortable with digital asset ETFs, products that reach scale first often capture a lasting advantage in visibility and trading volume.

The $500 million crossing therefore represents both a commercial success for Bitwise and another data point in the gradual integration of crypto into conventional portfolios. Whether the fund continues its growth trajectory will depend on XRP’s market performance, competing products, and the broader appetite for alternative asset exposure.

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XRP’s derivatives market just woke up from a long nap. Futures trading volume across major platforms exceeded $64.6 billion in August, the highest monthly total since February and a signal that traders are piling back into one of crypto’s most watched assets.

The volume spike arrived alongside a meaningful price move. XRP climbed nearly 30% during the month, running from $1.06 at the start of August to a high of $1.50 on August 24 before settling around $1.35.

Where the volume landed Binance was the clear heavyweight in this derivatives surge, accounting for roughly $37 billion in XRP futures volume. Bybit came in second at approximately $14.54 billion, while OKX rounded out the top three with about $12.88 billion.

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The futures activity wasn’t happening in isolation. Spot trading volume for XRP also reached its highest point since February, with Binance again leading at $7.28 billion. South Korean exchanges showed up in force as well: Upbit recorded $4.68 billion in spot volume, and Bithumb Korea added $2.59 billion.

ETF inflows add institutional flavor US spot XRP ETFs recorded net inflows of $18.96 million during August, pushing combined assets under management to $1.48 billion.

What’s driving the renewed interest Two catalysts appear to be fueling the surge in XRP market activity. First, whale accumulation patterns picked up notably during August, with large holders adding to their positions ahead of a critical vote scheduled for September 15. Second, the broader narrative around XRP has shifted, with ETF products now live and attracting capital.

Worth noting: the volume spike did not indicate a clear directional bias. While the price moved higher, the futures market showed activity on both sides. Long and short interest appeared elevated, which means traders weren’t unanimously bullish.

For context, the last time XRP futures volume hit comparable levels was February, when the token was trading in a similar range.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

TLDR Ripple burned 1,363,614.85 RLUSD on the XRP Ledger on September 6. The same 1,363,614.85 RLUSD was minted on Ethereum only seconds later. The matched transactions point to a cross-chain supply rebalancing rather than new RLUSD issuance. About $1.36 million in RLUSD liquidity effectively shifted from XRPL to Ethereum. The Ethereum-minted RLUSD was later transferred to an external wallet. Ripple RLUSD supply shifted between the XRP Ledger and Ethereum after a matched burn and mint on September 6. Onchain data showed 1,363,614.85 RLUSD removed from circulation on XRPL before the same amount appeared on Ethereum seconds later.

The sequence points to a cross-chain supply transfer rather than new token creation. The paired transactions kept the total amount unchanged while moving roughly $1.36 million in RLUSD liquidity from one blockchain to another.

Ripple RLUSD Supply Shifts Across Networks The XRPL transaction sent 1,363,614.85 RLUSD back to an address where the tokens could no longer circulate. The transaction appeared connected to the stablecoin issuer and reduced the amount available on the XRP Ledger.

👀 RLUSD Cross-Chain Movement Spotted

1,363,614.85 RLUSD $1.36M) burned on the XRP Ledger tokens returned to issuer, permanently removed from XRPL circulation.

The exact same amount was minted on Ethereum minutes later and transferred to an external wallet.

This looks like a… https://t.co/6rCFI1FElF pic.twitter.com/sK72yr7qxR

— 𝗕𝗮𝗻𝗸XRP (@BankXRP) September 7, 2026

Ethereum then recorded a mint for exactly 1,363,614.85 RLUSD. The timing and matching amount suggest that Ripple moved existing supply across networks instead of increasing the stablecoin’s overall circulation.

After the Ethereum mint, the newly issued tokens moved to an external wallet. That transfer added another step to the cross-chain movement and placed the RLUSD outside the issuing address.

The activity differs from a standard mint that adds fresh supply to a network. In this case, the XRPL burn happened before Ethereum received the same number of tokens, keeping the combined supply level broadly unchanged.

Liquidity Moves Toward Ethereum The transaction shifted about $1.36 million worth of Ripple RLUSD from the XRP Ledger to Ethereum. The movement changed the location of stablecoin liquidity without creating an equal rise in total supply.

Ripple supports RLUSD on both the XRP Ledger and Ethereum. Moving supply between the networks can help place tokens where users, exchanges, payment firms, or trading venues need more available liquidity.

Such rebalancing can place more tokens on the network where current market activity creates stronger liquidity needs.

The September 6 transactions also show how an issuer can manage a stablecoin across multiple blockchains. Burning tokens on one network and minting the same amount on another can move supply without relying on a direct token bridge.

For RLUSD users, the recorded transactions mainly changed the blockchain holding the tokens. Onchain records showed a reduction on XRPL and a matching increase on Ethereum, leaving the transferred amount balanced overall across the two networks.

One billion tokens hit the open market on September 1. Instead of dumping, XRP rallied. The monthly escrow release that once spooked retail traders has become background noise for an asset that just logged its strongest on-chain quarter in years.

Summary

Ripple released 1 billion XRP (worth roughly $1.38 billion) from escrow on September 1, 2026, reducing locked supply to 31.28 billion tokens. XRP climbed 28.5% in August, its best August since 2021, touching $1.70 before settling near $1.42, absorbing the escrow release without flinching. Payment volume on the XRP Ledger surged 521% in a single week in late August, driven by larger institutional-scale transfers rather than retail activity. Spot XRP ETFs, approved in March 2026, pulled in $153.55 million in August alone, with $150.28 million arriving in the final two weeks. RLUSD, Ripple’s stablecoin, crossed $2.32 billion in market cap, cementing its position as the dominant stablecoin on XRPL and a growing force on Ethereum. For eight years, Ripple’s monthly escrow unlock has played out like clockwork. On the first day of every month, the XRP Ledger’s built-in escrow contracts release up to 1 billion XRP into Ripple-controlled wallets. Each time, a wave of anxious posts floods social media. Each time, traders brace for a dump that rarely arrives. And each time, the market moves on.

September 1, 2026, was no different in mechanics. Whale Alert flagged three transactions: 500 million, 400 million, and 100 million XRP, all released from escrow within minutes. The total haul was worth about $1.38 billion at the time. What was different, though, was everything around it.

XRP had just posted its best August in five years. Active addresses on the ledger were at all-time highs. Spot ETFs were pulling in nine-figure inflows. Ripple, freed from its four-year SEC battle, was signing deals with names like Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan. The billion-token release landed in a market that was not scared of it anymore, and for good reason.

This is the story of how the scariest thing about XRP became one of the least interesting.

The anatomy of a billion-token unlock The escrow program dates back to December 2017, when Ripple locked 55 billion XRP into time-based contracts on the XRP Ledger. The idea was straightforward: remove the supply overhang that critics used to argue XRP was centrally controlled. The protocol would release up to 1 billion tokens on the first of each month, and anything Ripple did not sell would go back into escrow at the end of the queue.

Nine years later, the program has released tens of billions of XRP. Ripple’s escrow balance has dropped from 55 billion to 31.28 billion as of the September release, according to crypto.news data on XRPL escrow mechanics. But the net effect on circulating supply has been modest. Ripple typically re-escrows 700 to 900 million XRP each month, leaving only 100 to 300 million for operational use, OTC liquidity deals, or institutional payments.

The math is simple. A billion tokens sound alarming. But when 70 to 90 percent go right back into lockup, the actual supply entering the market is a fraction of the headline number. Historical data backs this up: monthly escrow releases have produced average 7-day price swings of negative 3.1% to positive 1.7%, with 30-day volume bumps of 15 to 22 percent. Not nothing, but not the catastrophic sell events that early critics predicted.

Compare that to traditional equity markets. When a public company’s lockup period expires and insiders can sell, the stock often drops 5 to 15 percent in a single session. XRP’s monthly unlock is milder than a typical IPO lockup expiry. The difference is predictability. Everyone knows when the tokens are coming. Everyone knows how many. And everyone knows Ripple’s historical re-escrow behavior. There is no information asymmetry, which means there is no panic.

What changed in 2025 and 2026 is the market’s understanding of this pattern. Early on, every unlock triggered panic selling by traders who saw a billion-token dump incoming. Now the unlock is priced in, discussed in advance, and absorbed within hours. The September release barely moved the needle. XRP was trading at $1.38 when the tokens unlocked and was at $1.42 five days later.

August’s 28% rally and what powered it To understand why the escrow release landed softly, you need to understand what August looked like for XRP.

The token entered August near $1.10, having spent most of the summer in a grinding consolidation. By mid-August, something shifted. Whale accumulation picked up sharply. Spot ETF inflows, which had been trickling in since the March 2026 approvals, turned into a firehose. And on-chain metrics started flashing signals that had not appeared since the post-settlement euphoria of late 2025.

By August 28, XRP had touched $1.70, a 28.5% gain for the month and its strongest August performance since 2021. Nearly all the momentum arrived in the final two weeks, coinciding with $150.28 million in ETF inflows during that stretch. The total August ETF inflow figure hit $153.55 million, meaning the first half of the month contributed less than $4 million.

The pattern suggests institutional buyers, not retail speculators, drove the move. Retail volume on major exchanges actually declined slightly during the rally. The money came from funds, from ETF creation baskets, and from OTC desks serving institutional clients. That is a fundamentally different kind of buying pressure than the speculative waves that defined previous XRP rallies.

As of September 6, XRP sits near $1.42. It gave back some of the August gains, which is consistent with a historical pattern: in seven of the last eight years, XRP’s September has moved in the opposite direction of its August. Both times August rose, September fell, dropping 14% in 2020 and 19.6% in 2021. Whether that pattern holds this time depends on factors that previous Septembers did not have, including spot ETFs, institutional pipelines, and a Fed meeting on September 15 and 16 with fresh projections.

There is a reasonable argument that the seasonal pattern breaks this year. In 2020 and 2021, XRP had no ETFs, no regulatory clarity, and an active SEC lawsuit hanging over it. The buyers were almost entirely retail. This time, the August rally was driven by ETF creation baskets and OTC institutional flows. That type of capital does not rotate out on a monthly candlestick pattern. It stays because it was allocated with a multi-quarter or multi-year time horizon. The seasonal bears might be right on a short-term pullback, but calling for a 15 to 20 percent September decline requires ignoring every structural change that has happened in the past 12 months.

The 521% payment volume spike, explained On August 26, the XRP Ledger recorded a payment volume surge that grabbed headlines: a 521.1% increase, pushing daily payment volume to roughly 488.4 million XRP. Numbers like that sound transformative. The reality is more nuanced, but still meaningful.

The number of individual payment transactions actually fell 10.5% that day, to around 388,900. What spiked was the size of each transaction. Fewer payments, but each one carrying dramatically more value. This points to institutional or enterprise-scale activity: treasury movements, cross-border settlement batches, or large OTC transfers.

Crypto.news reported that XRP had its best month since the SEC settlement, and the on-chain data supports that framing. Active addresses on the XRP Ledger hit 2.26 million in August, more than double July’s 1.02 million. The 7-day moving average for daily active addresses reached 1.34 million, a new all-time high, surpassing the previous record of 1.22 million set in March 2025.

JUST IN: Ripple Prime expands HyperLiquid integration with HIP-3 symbols, institutions now get onchain perps for gold, silver & oil pic.twitter.com/bH77x5ClGu

— crypto.news (@cryptodotnews) March 31, 2026 Total value locked on the XRP Ledger rose from $32.31 million in July to $44.42 million in August. That figure looks small compared to Ethereum or Solana, but the trajectory matters more than the absolute number. XRPL was never designed to be a DeFi playground. Its core use case is payments, and the payment volume numbers tell a story of growing real-world usage at scale.

The 521% spike was not a sign that XRPL usage sextupled overnight. It was a sign that the entities using the ledger are moving bigger money. And bigger money, in the world of cross-border payments, is precisely what Ripple has been building toward for a decade.

Post-settlement Ripple is a different company On August 11, 2025, the SEC and Ripple Labs jointly dismissed their appeals, ending a legal battle that had consumed both parties since December 2020. Ripple paid $125 million in fines. XRP spiked 11% on the news. But the real impact was not the price jump. It was what happened in the months after.

The settlement preserved a crucial judicial ruling: XRP sold on public exchanges does not qualify as a security. Institutional sales remain subject to securities law, but the secondary market got a clean bill of health. That distinction gave XRP a level of regulatory clarity that most competing tokens still lack, and it opened doors that had been bolted shut for years.

Within months of the settlement, Ripple closed its $1.25 billion acquisition of Hidden Road, creating the first crypto-native global prime brokerage. The deal, announced in April 2025 and closed in October, brought clearing, financing, and multi-asset market access under the Ripple umbrella. Hidden Road, now operating as Ripple Prime, has tripled in size since the acquisition, with client collateral doubling and average daily transactions climbing past 60 million.

Ripple did not stop there. The company went on an acquisition spree, spending roughly $4 billion total on deals including GTreasury, Rail, Standard Custody, and Palisade. It secured conditional approval for a national trust bank. It raised at a $50 billion valuation. This is not the scrappy fintech startup that spent four years fighting the SEC. This is a company building a full-stack financial infrastructure play, and the settlement made all of it possible.

The ETF effect and institutional pipeline When the SEC approved multiple spot XRP ETFs in March 2026, skeptics wondered whether anyone would actually buy them. Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs had the advantage of broad name recognition. XRP was the asset that had been labeled a potential security for years. Would institutional allocators touch it?

The answer came quickly. Within 60 days, cumulative inflows into spot XRP ETFs exceeded $1.5 billion, making them the fastest crypto ETF category to reach that milestone since the Ethereum ETF launch in 2024. Products from Bitwise, 21Shares, and Canary Capital led the pack.

The approval was made possible by two regulatory shifts. The CLARITY Act, which passed in early 2026, provided the legislative framework for digital commodity classification. And the SEC and CFTC jointly classified XRP as a digital commodity under the same framework used for Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs. For institutional investors who had been waiting for unambiguous legal status before allocating, the ETF approvals were the green light.

The corporate treasury pipeline also opened. Evernorth now holds $1 billion in XRP reserves. Trident Digital Tech Holdings holds $500 million. Webus International added $300 million. These are not speculative bets by crypto-native funds. These are corporate balance sheet allocations, the kind of money that tends to stay put.

Institutional trading volumes spiked 208% following the settlement and ETF approvals, reaching $12.40 billion. That volume has not retreated much since. The market structure around XRP has shifted from retail-dominated to institutionally anchored, and that shift explains why events like the monthly escrow unlock barely register anymore.

RLUSD and the stablecoin flywheel Ripple’s stablecoin, RLUSD, launched in December 2024. By September 2026, it has reached a $2.32 billion market cap, with $963 million issued on the XRP Ledger and $1.1 billion on Ethereum. For context, it took USDC years to reach that level. RLUSD did it in under two years.

The growth is not accidental. Ripple wired RLUSD directly into its institutional infrastructure. Through Ripple Prime (the rebranded Hidden Road), RLUSD became the first stablecoin to enable cross-margining between digital assets and traditional markets. Institutional clients using Ripple Prime can post RLUSD as collateral for FX, derivatives, and fixed income trades. That is not a crypto use case. That is a capital markets use case, and it explains why the stablecoin is growing so fast.

Transfer volume hit $18.4 billion in Q1 2026 alone, with more than 55% of that activity concentrated in March. RLUSD now holds 88% of all stablecoin liquidity on the XRP Ledger. Partnerships with Mastercard, JPMorgan, OKX, and Ondo Finance have expanded its reach into spot trading, derivatives, and tokenized finance.

The flywheel works like this: more RLUSD adoption means more transaction volume on XRPL, which means more demand for XRP as a bridge asset, which attracts more institutional participants, who bring more RLUSD demand. Each piece reinforces the others. And unlike speculative token demand, stablecoin-driven demand tends to be sticky. Once a treasury operation is built around RLUSD rails, switching costs are high.

The partnership map Ripple’s partnership strategy in 2026 reads like a company that no longer needs to prove it belongs in traditional finance. It is already there.

February 2026 was the landmark month. Deutsche Bank integrated Ripple’s payment infrastructure for cross-border transfers and FX operations. Aviva Investors partnered to tokenize fund structures on the XRP Ledger. Societe Generale’s SG-FORGE launched its euro stablecoin EURCV on XRPL. Zand signed on for stablecoin solutions. Figment expanded custody services.

In July, the next wave arrived: Mastercard, JPMorgan, OKX, and Ondo Finance. Each partnership targets a different piece of the financial stack. Mastercard brings card network integration. JPMorgan brings interbank settlement. OKX brings exchange liquidity. Ondo Finance brings tokenized treasuries.

In Asia, Ripple secured its third Korean partnership with Jeonbuk Bank for cross-border transfers, following deals with K Bank and Kyobo Life Insurance. Ripple Payments now handles more than $15 billion a month through on-demand liquidity, working with over 300 institutions across 55 countries.

The XRP Ledger itself is evolving. Ripple’s FinTech Builder Program supports startups building institutional-grade applications on XRPL, providing structured support from product design through market launch. The ledger has processed 2 million AI-agent payments, a small but growing use case as autonomous agents need fast, cheap settlement rails. When two AI systems need to settle a microtransaction in under four seconds with fees measured in fractions of a cent, the XRP Ledger is one of the few networks that can do it without congestion or fee spikes. Upcoming protocol upgrades include enhanced privacy features, improved programmability, and greater interoperability with other blockchains using zero-knowledge technology, with on-chain lending as a major development focus.

The AI payments angle deserves attention. Ripple Payments handled $1.3 trillion in transactions in Q2 2025 alone, working with more than 300 institutions across 55 countries and moving roughly $15 billion a month through on-demand liquidity. If even a small fraction of AI-agent commerce routes through XRPL over the next two years, the transaction volume numbers will look very different than they do today.

Three conditions analysts say XRP needs for sustained recovery are all being met: regulatory clarity, institutional adoption, and network utility growth. The question is no longer whether XRP has a use case. It is whether the market will price the use case in before or after the next macro catalyst.

Why the escrow narrative died There was a time, not long ago, when Ripple’s escrow program was the single biggest bear case against XRP. Critics argued that 1 billion tokens hitting the market every month created permanent sell pressure. They pointed to Ripple’s balance sheet, which held (and still holds) billions of XRP, as evidence that the company was dumping on retail investors.

That narrative has collapsed for three reasons.

The re-escrow rate has been consistent. Ripple has re-locked 70 to 90 percent of every monthly release for years. The net addition to circulating supply is a fraction of the headline number. In January 2026, Ripple re-escrowed roughly 700 million of the 1 billion released. The pattern has been so consistent that it is now baked into every serious valuation model.

The market grew into the supply. When the escrow program started in 2017, XRP’s total market cap was a fraction of what it is today. A billion-token release represented a meaningful percentage of daily volume. Now, with XRP’s market cap around $82 billion and daily trading volume regularly exceeding $1 billion, the monthly release is proportionally much smaller. The market can absorb it without disruption.

Institutional demand created a floor. ETF creation baskets, corporate treasury allocations, and Ripple Prime’s collateral requirements all create ongoing demand for XRP. That structural demand did not exist in 2018 or 2020 or even 2024. It exists now, and it acts as a sponge for newly unlocked supply.

The escrow unlock is not bullish or bearish. It is a scheduled, predictable, well-understood event in a market that has moved far beyond the point where supply-side scares drive prices. The September 1 release proved it. A billion tokens were unlocked, and XRP went up.

What to watch The next few weeks will determine whether XRP holds its August gains or follows the historical September pattern of giving them back. Here are the signals that matter:

Fed meeting, September 15 to 16. The Federal Reserve’s September meeting includes fresh economic projections and a dot plot update. A dovish shift could fuel risk assets broadly. A hawkish surprise would pressure everything, including XRP.

ETF flow direction. August saw $153.55 million in inflows. If September maintains that pace, XRP likely holds above $1.35. If flows reverse, the $1.20 support level comes into play.

RLUSD market cap trajectory. The stablecoin crossing $2.5 billion would signal continued institutional adoption. A stall or decline would raise questions about the sustainability of the XRPL flywheel.

On-chain activity. Active addresses staying above 1.3 million on a 7-day average would confirm that August was a structural shift, not a temporary spike.

Ripple Prime volume. Hidden Road’s rebranded prime brokerage is processing 60 million daily transactions. Growth in that number is a direct proxy for institutional engagement with the Ripple ecosystem.

October 1 escrow release. Another billion tokens will unlock. The market’s reaction, or lack of reaction, will confirm whether the escrow narrative is truly dead or merely dormant.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute financial, investment, or legal advice. Cryptocurrency investments carry significant risk, including the potential loss of principal. Always conduct your own research and consult with a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions. Published September 7, 2026.

How much XRP did Ripple unlock from escrow on September 1, 2026? Ripple released exactly 1 billion XRP from escrow on September 1, 2026, in three separate transactions of 500 million, 400 million, and 100 million tokens. At the time of release, the tokens were worth approximately $1.38 billion. Ripple’s total escrow balance dropped from 32.28 billion to 31.28 billion XRP as a result.

Does the monthly escrow unlock crash XRP’s price? Historical data shows that monthly escrow releases produce average 7-day price swings of negative 3.1% to positive 1.7%. The September 2026 release had essentially no negative impact, with XRP trading higher five days after the unlock. Ripple typically re-escrows 700 to 900 million XRP each month, so the net supply entering the market is 100 to 300 million tokens, not the full billion.

What are XRP spot ETFs and how much money have they attracted? The SEC approved multiple spot XRP exchange-traded funds in March 2026, including products from Bitwise, 21Shares, and Canary Capital. Within 60 days, cumulative inflows exceeded $1.5 billion. In August 2026 alone, spot XRP ETFs attracted $153.55 million in new investment, with the majority arriving in the final two weeks of the month.

What is RLUSD and why does it matter for XRP? RLUSD is Ripple’s USD-backed stablecoin, launched in December 2024. It has reached a $2.32 billion market cap, with tokens issued on both the XRP Ledger and Ethereum. RLUSD matters because it drives transaction volume on XRPL, creates demand for XRP as a bridge asset, and serves as institutional collateral through Ripple Prime. It holds 88% of all stablecoin liquidity on the XRP Ledger.

How did the Ripple SEC settlement affect XRP? The SEC and Ripple jointly dismissed their appeals in August 2025, ending a legal battle that began in December 2020. Ripple paid $125 million in fines. The settlement preserved a key ruling: XRP sold on public exchanges is not a security. This gave XRP regulatory clarity that most competing tokens lack and opened the door for ETF approvals, corporate treasury allocations, and institutional adoption at scale.

What caused the 521% payment volume surge on the XRP Ledger? On August 26, 2026, payment volume on the XRP Ledger spiked 521.1% to roughly 488.4 million XRP. The surge was driven by larger individual transactions rather than more transactions (the number of payments actually fell 10.5%). This pattern suggests institutional or enterprise-scale activity, such as treasury movements or cross-border settlement batches, rather than a broad increase in retail usage.

What is Ripple Prime and how does it relate to XRP? Ripple Prime is the rebranded Hidden Road, which Ripple acquired for $1.25 billion in 2025. It is the first crypto-native global prime brokerage, offering institutional clients clearing, financing, and access to FX, derivatives, fixed income, and digital asset markets. Hidden Road migrated its post-trade activity to the XRP Ledger and uses RLUSD for cross-margining, creating structural demand for both XRP and RLUSD.

Is XRP a good investment right now? XRP is in a stronger structural position than at any previous point in its history, with regulatory clarity, approved spot ETFs, institutional adoption, and growing network utility. The token trades near $1.42 as of September 6, roughly 57% below its July 2025 cycle high of $3.65. Whether it represents a good investment depends on individual risk tolerance, time horizon, and portfolio allocation strategy. This is educational analysis, not investment advice.

Is XRP a good investment right now? XRP is in a stronger structural position than at any previous point in its history, with regulatory clarity, approved spot ETFs, institutional adoption, and growing network utility. The token trades near $1.42 as of September 6, roughly 57% below its July 2025 cycle high of $3.65. Whether it represents a good investment depends on individual risk tolerance, time horizon, and portfolio allocation strategy. This is educational analysis, not investment advice.

In brief Ripple struck a multi-year deal with the University of Florida to feature the XRP logo on the field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, plus digital properties and signage, alongside a commitment to fund financial and technology education for student-athletes. It's Ripple's latest college-sports play, following a deal earlier this year to put the XRP logo on Kansas Jayhawks basketball jerseys. The branding push comes as XRP trades around $1.41—up 34.9% over 30 days but down 49.8% on the year. Ripple is taking its crypto-in-college-sports playbook to the Swamp, striking a multi-year marketing deal with the University of Florida that will splash the XRP logo across the field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium starting this football season.

Florida Athletics announced the deal Friday, saying the XRP branding will appear on the field as well as on digital properties and event signage in Gainesville.

Myriad: Where does XRP price go next? Click to make your prediction.Beyond the marketing, Ripple committed to supporting financial and technology education for Florida student-athletes and the broader campus community, spanning both traditional finance and digital assets. Terms weren't disclosed.

"Florida has a long history of embracing innovation and technology to enhance the experience of our fans and advance our programs," University of Florida Director of Athletics Scott Stricklin said in a statement. "Ripple has established itself as an innovative leader in financial technology, and we're excited to welcome XRP to Gator Nation."

The Gators deal marks Ripple's latest push into college athletics. The company previously struck a multi-year agreement earlier this year to place the XRP logo on the University of Kansas Jayhawks' basketball jerseys, an unusual foray for a crypto brand into the marketing real estate of major college programs.

The branding blitz comes as XRP's price has held steady without much fireworks. The token traded around $1.41 on Friday, up 0.6% over 24 hours, according to CoinGecko, leaving it up about 34.9% over the past 30 days but still down roughly 49.8% over the past year.

Spot XRP ETF demand, a recent tailwind, has cooled: flows were essentially flat on Sept. 4, and as Decrypt reported, the funds recently ended an inflow streak. Decrypt's XRP ETF tracker now reads XRP sentiment as "neutral," though cumulative net inflows still stand at about $1.6 billion.

The sponsorships arrive as Ripple leans into mainstream visibility, having spent years building out its payments, custody, and treasury business and recently rolling out its RLUSD stablecoin.

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The escalating conflict on X between the affected team and former Ripple developers shows that the recent large-scale wallet drain did not come as a surprise to experts.

On Sept. 3, 2026, an incident involving the mobile wallets of XRP Healthcare, formerly known as XRPayNet, occurred within the XRPL ecosystem. In just three hours, the attackers drained the balances of thousands of users, stealing approximately 267,000 XRP and millions of related tokens, which were quickly transferred to the Ethereum network.

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Forensic analysis uncovered a critical bug: users' private seed phrases were sent to a server when staking features were activated. 

Against this backdrop, developer BiasGoose stated that the incident was "not news to me," as he had previously rejected grant applications from the team.

While developers search for the stolen coins, former Ripple devs look back at the project's past sinsAs it turned out, former Ripple employees had blacklisted the project long ago. According to BiasGoose, the Uganda-linked medical initiative had shown signs of fraud from the outset. Its creators had been caught "blatantly lying about partnerships in their application" to secure funding and generate artificial hype. 

The developer stressed that the product did not need its own token at all: "whatever it was didn't need a token."

Security experts Hazard Cookie, formerly of Ripple, and Matt Hamilton confirmed that auditors had been documenting the project's architectural risks for years. The community also remembers the team as scammers who were "kicked to the curb as known scammers" during previous market cycles between 2022 and 2024.

Yup was all red flags when I spoke to them before as XRPayNet.

— Matt Hamilton (@HammerToe) September 6, 2026 In response to the criticism, the project team released an official statement confirming the hack. Platform representatives said developers were already conducting an urgent investigation, fully tracing the transactions on the blockchain and coordinating with relevant authorities to freeze and recover the assets.

XRP Healthcare's public response to criticism regarding their wallet security incident. Source: XRP Healthcare via X.comAt the same time, they accused the former Ripple developers of unethical behavior, saying that they had put their own names and money at stake while their opponents merely mocked the risks taken by others. According to the affected team, publicly celebrating the misfortune of colleagues is "genuinely pathetic," and they had expected "far more character" from industry veterans.

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At press time, the discussion on X had stalled after a harsh response from BiasGoose, who shot back that, unlike the creators of the hacked application, he "never took risks with other people's money, my guy."

While the project team attempts to trace the stolen funds and former Ripple employees point to years-old audits, the crypto community is left to assess the arguments from both sides: was this a tragic developer error or the predictable outcome of a project whose red flags had been ignored for years?

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.

A major bundled fix amendment is scheduled to activate on the XRP Ledger mainnet in the next five days if validator support remains above the required threshold. According to XRPscan data, fixCleanup3_3_0 is scheduled for September 11 mainnet activation if it holds 80% support for a 14-day window.

XRP Ledger's amendment system uses a consensus process to approve changes that affect transaction processing. Fully functional transaction processing changes are introduced as amendments; validators then vote on these changes. If an amendment receives more than 80% support for two weeks, it passes, and the change applies permanently to all subsequent ledger versions.

The fixCleanup3_3_0 amendment was introduced in the XRPL software version release 3.3.0, launched in August, and is designed to strengthen several features across the network.

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fixCleanup3_3_0 quickly gained traction after it opened for voting on August 6, attaining a majority (that is, reaching 80% support) on August 28, following which the two-week activation timer began to tick, with five days now remaining.

XRP Ledger overhaul continuesThe fixCleanup3_3_0 amendment is a collection of fixes for Single Asset Vaults, the Lending Protocol, Automated Market Makers, the permissioned DEX, Checks, and pseudo-accounts, with 11 changes outlined.

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These include a fix to hybrid offers being removed from the open order book when the account that placed them loses access to the permissioned domain, and Automated Market Maker liquidity being included in quality estimates for permissioned DEX order books. The upgrade will also add further precision and rounding fixes for Single Asset Vaults and the Lending Protocol, which are currently in voting.

fixCleanup3_3_0 follows previous fix upgrades fixCleanup3_1_3 and fixCleanup3_2_0, which were activated on the XRPL mainnet in May and July, respectively. The fixCleanup3_1_3 amendment marked a collection of fixes for NFTs, Permissioned Domains, Vaults, and the Lending Protocol, while fixCleanup3_2_0 included fixes for Single Asset Vaults, the Lending Protocol, the permissioned DEX, Multi-Purpose Tokens, and permissioned domains.

The fixCleanup3_3_0 amendment gained 82.86% support, with 29 Yes votes out of 35, and is currently holding this threshold, with the potential for its activation in days.

Agent-driven transactions on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) have reached a new record, with over 3,992,146 transactions now processed through the x402 facilitator. This marks a significant milestone as AI-powered agents continue to use the ledger to pay for services directly onchain using XRP and RLUSD.

Rapid growth in agentic transaction volumeData shows that the number of agentic transactions has surged rapidly since the beginning of September 2026. According to t54, a provider of trust and facilitation tools on the XRPL, transaction volume climbed from 3.1 million to nearly 4 million in just four days—an increase of approximately 890,000.

AI agents rely on the XRP Ledger to conduct payments for various digital services, including token analytics, market intelligence, and research. Transactions are settled autonomously in either XRP or RLUSD, Ripple‘s onchain US dollar-backed asset.

More than 3.99 million agentic transactions have settled on the XRPL to date, highlighting accelerating demand for onchain machine-to-machine commerce and infrastructure.

DateAgentic Transactions (Cumulative)September 1, 20263.1 millionSeptember 5, 20263.99 millionRipple has actively supported this trend with the launch of the XRPL AI Starter Kit in June 2026. This collection of developer tools introduced new ways for AI agents to make payments using the x402 protocol, allowing seamless, trust-minimized transfers in XRP and RLUSD for APIs and digital services.

XRP Ledger agentic payments gain Mastercard supportThe x402 facilitator, provided by Ripple partner t54, acts as a trust layer and mediator, enabling verification of agent payments and risk checks before settlement. Through this setup, agent payments on the XRP Ledger now support Mastercard’s Verifiable Intent standard, which provides proof of payment authorization, amount limits, and purchase details, with automated screening prior to finalization.

Mastercard, a global payments technology company, has included the t54 x402 facilitator in its Start Path program for Agentic Commerce & Services. This initiative connects fintech innovators with large-scale payment networks to foster secure, transparent agent-driven transactions.

Using t54’s platform, merchants and payment providers can transact with AI agents in real time, benefiting from identity verification, automated risk assessment, and built-in dispute resolution. The integration supports a growing trend of machine-to-machine financial activity on blockchain networks.

Mini dictionary: x402 Facilitator – A protocol and infrastructure provider on the XRP Ledger that enables AI agents to authorize, execute, and confirm payments for services using onchain digital assets like XRP and RLUSD, with integrated trust, payment verification, and risk management tools.

The integration of Mastercard’s Verifiable Intent standard with the x402 facilitator is expected to improve trust and transparency in machine-agent transactions by providing clear records of payment authorization and automated risk checks.

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 XRP Ledger just hit 8 million activated accounts for the first time. That sounds like a growth story. Look closer, though, and the picture gets more complicated.

Daily active addresses on the network fell roughly 61% in one June 2026 snapshot, dropping to around 7,800 on its worst days and sitting near 25,350 during mid-year readings. The total number of funded wallets keeps climbing, but the share of those wallets actually doing anything on a given day has shrunk considerably.

What’s filling the gap is the size of the transactions that remain. Average transaction value on XRPL reached somewhere between $85,000 and $86,700 in 2026, a figure that reportedly surpasses the per-transaction average of both Bitcoin and Ethereum. When fewer people are moving money but each transfer is worth roughly the price of a suburban home, that tells you something meaningful about who is still showing up.

A network in transition The ledger crossed 8 million activated accounts in July 2026, up from approximately 7.85 million in March. New account creation has continued, averaging around 2,300 fresh wallets per day since March, though the pace of additions has slowed from earlier peaks.

Transaction counts, meanwhile, paint an interesting contrast with the falling active-address numbers. Certain periods showed a 38% rise in total transactions alongside a 110% jump in transactions per ledger, even as overall payment volumes declined. More transactions, fewer active accounts, larger individual transfers: the ledger is doing more heavy lifting per session, not more sessions overall.

The clearest explanation sits in what those transactions are increasingly made of. RLUSD, Ripple’s dollar-pegged stablecoin, has been expanding its issuance on XRPL. Tokenized real-world assets are also proliferating on the network, with associated value running into the hundreds of millions and, in some readings, into the billions. Both categories skew toward institutional counterparties settling large positions rather than retail users making small payments.

What institutional gravity means for XRPL’s positioning The expansion of tokenized real-world assets on the ledger fits a broader market trend. Across multiple blockchains, asset managers and financial institutions have been piloting or deploying tokenized versions of treasuries, money market funds, and other instruments.

RLUSD’s growth on XRPL adds another institutional-grade layer. A regulated stablecoin anchored to the dollar and settling on a ledger purpose-built for high-value transfers is a more compelling argument for a bank treasury desk than for a retail crypto trader.

The retail cooling, though, deserves honest acknowledgment. Daily active addresses in the low thousands represent a significant contraction in grassroots network participation.

The regulatory backdrop matters here. Ripple’s multi-year legal dispute with the US Securities and Exchange Commission effectively resolved in the company’s favor on key points, removing one of the larger clouds over the token and the ledger. That outcome opened doors with regulated financial institutions that had been waiting on the sidelines, which likely contributed to the institutional activity uptick visible in 2026’s on-chain data.

For investors watching XRP as a proxy for network health, the metrics demand a framework update. Traditional crypto valuation heuristics lean on daily active addresses and transaction counts as signals of organic demand. XRPL’s 2026 data suggests those numbers need to be weighted against average transaction size and the composition of network activity. A ledger moving billions in tokenized assets through fewer, larger transactions can be healthier in economic terms than one generating thousands of tiny transfers from speculative retail flows.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

The XRP Ledger's agentic payment layer has crossed a fresh milestone, with @t54ai's x402 hub recording 3,807,228 transactions to date, a 274% increase from earlier counts. Total value settled stands at 5,726 XRP and 3,626 RLUSD, @Ripple's dollar stablecoin.

How x402 Agent Payments Work

The hub acts as the central directory and facilitator for these machine-to-machine payments, currently listing 1,711 live services from 148 registered merchants.

Heurist Leads the Merchant Table @heurist_ai's Heurist Inference Router sits well clear of the rest of the top five merchants on the hub.

Other active merchants in the directory include LucyOS, ClawBank, and AskSurf, which together round out the top five by transaction volume.

The rapid growth in transaction counts signals a maturing agentic economy on the XRP Ledger, even as the broader market watches for signs that volume can translate into meaningful settlement value at scale.

Sources:
XRP Ledger: Agentic Payments with X402
CoinMarketCap: Ripple Launches AI Agent Payments with XRP and RLUSD
Crypto Economy: AI Agents Fuel XRP Transactions, RippleX Maps Path Toward 100M