XRP has been stuck in a sideways grind near $1.43, but the calm price action masks a flurry of activity that is reshaping the asset’s fundamentals. The number of wallets holding at least 10,000 XRP hit an all-time high of 332,230 on May 12, according to Santiment — a milestone that signals sustained accumulation by deep-pocketed holders rather than a fleeting speculative spike. This build-up has been underway since mid-2024, persisting even through the token’s 23.8% year-to-date decline.
Institutional demand is adding another layer of momentum. Spot XRP ETFs listed in the U.S. recorded net inflows of $25.8 million on May 11, the strongest single-day showing since January. Franklin Templeton’s XRPZ product led the pack with $13.6 million, followed by Bitwise at $7.6 million and Grayscale at $4.6 million. Cumulative net inflows into these regulated vehicles have now surpassed $1.35 billion, steadily expanding the investor base beyond crypto-native traders into mainstream fund flows.
The derivatives market is also heating up. Open interest in XRP futures climbed about 23% in May to roughly $2.9 billion, reflecting rising speculative appetite and deeper liquidity — though not necessarily a guarantee of near-term price gains.
Ripple’s Institutional Infrastructure Gets a $200 Million Boost
Ripple is reinforcing its professional-grade offering. A $200 million credit facility from Neuberger Specialty Finance is earmarked for Ripple Prime, the prime brokerage platform born from the acquisition of Hidden Road in 2025. The facility is designed to expand margin financing across asset classes including equities, fixed income, forex and digital assets — a move that gives institutional clients the credit capacity and settlement certainty they demand.
Ripple Prime’s revenue has already tripled year-over-year, and the firm is embedding itself deeper into traditional market plumbing. On May 13, Crossover Markets launched CROSSx Disclosed, a platform that lets institutional participants tap more than 30 OTC liquidity providers. Ripple Prime serves as the prime broker for netting and settlement, with the matching engine capable of processing up to one million orders per second. The goal is capital efficiency: clients can customise liquidity pools and streamline post-trade processes.
The push extends to Latin America, where Ripple is building automated market maker infrastructure for banks in Brazil alongside UDAX, Levery and FGV, with a VASP licence application underway to secure regulatory footing in the region.
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On-Chain Activity Accelerates
The XRP Ledger is seeing a surge in real-world usage. Transaction volumes jumped 65% over the past twelve months to 71 million. A notable milestone came from a pilot that saw JPMorgan, Mastercard and Ondo Finance execute a cross-border tokenised redemption of U.S. Treasury bonds in under five seconds — a demonstration of the ledger’s utility for institutional-grade settlements.
The RLUSD stablecoin, built on the same ecosystem, has grown its market capitalisation to roughly $1.6 billion, placing it among the 60 largest cryptocurrencies. Higher stablecoin liquidity within the XRP network bolsters the usable float for trading and payments.
The Senate Vote That Could Reshape XRP’s Legal Status
All these developments converge on a single political event this Thursday: the Senate Banking Committee’s markup of the CLARITY Act. The bill aims to clarify jurisdictional lines between the SEC and CFTC for digital assets, and a specific definition of “network tokens” could classify XRP as a commodity for secondary-market sales — a legal distinction that would sharply reduce regulatory overhang.
More than 100 amendments have been filed, making the outcome uncertain, but prediction markets currently assign a 60% to 79% probability of passage in 2026. Even so, this week’s hearing is the most concrete legislative test yet for XRP’s institutional narrative.
Technically, XRP is trading inside a symmetrical triangle pattern. A sustained break above the $1.48–$1.50 resistance zone could open upside targets toward $1.60–$1.80, while key support sits at $1.40–$1.42. The upcoming Senate action will determine whether the accumulation beneath the surface finally translates into a breakout or keeps XRP pinned in its current range.
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