XRP is caught in a paradoxical moment. The token’s network cleared a critical audit hurdle this month and a sister stablecoin just went live at a major Japanese exchange — yet the price lingers near its worst levels of the year, down more than 44% since January.

At roughly $1.04, XRP is barely above the 52-week trough of $1.01 set on June 25. The relative strength index has drifted to 31, a zone that typically signals oversold conditions. Technical relief may be overdue, but neither the news flow from the XRP Ledger nor Ripple’s expanding Asian footprint has provided the catalyst markets appear to want.

Security Audit Closes Without Red Flags

The blockchain security firm Halborn has completed a fresh review of the XRPL Lending Protocol, a piece of infrastructure that could eventually bring native fixed-term lending to the ledger. The re-audit ran from mid-December 2025 through early January 2026. Ripple commissioned it after significant code changes since the initial audit in the summer of 2025.

The findings were benign: zero critical vulnerabilities and zero high-risk issues. Halborn’s report identified five items in total — one medium-severity flaw involving a potential bypass of a vault’s borrowing ceiling through accrued interest, which has since been fixed. The remainder were two low-priority bugs and two purely informational notes. Halborn confirmed that all reported issues were addressed.

This matters because the lending mechanism envisioned under the proposal known as XLS-66 would be structurally different from the overcollateralized lending typical of other decentralized finance networks. It relies on pooled assets in single-asset vaults with external underwriting. For a network best known as a payment rail, adding a DeFi layer could broaden its use case and, by extension, drive demand for XRP, which powers all transaction fees on the ledger.

But an audit is not an activation. Getting the protocol onto mainnet still requires validator approval — a separate governance process that has yet to conclude.

Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying XRP?

RLUSD Arrives in Japan — With Ethereum Strings Attached

Separately, Ripple’s stablecoin RLUSD is now tradable via SBI VC Trade, a regulated Japanese exchange. The product, fully backed by US Treasuries and cash reserves, holds roughly $1.7 billion in market capitalization and is classified as Japan’s first Type 4 stablecoin.

For XRP holders, the reception has been muted. The reason lies in the technical plumbing. SBI VC Trade currently supports RLUSD deposits and withdrawals only over the Ethereum network. Integration with the XRP Ledger — the network Ripple controls — has not yet been implemented. That means the stablecoin’s liquidity and utility are not flowing through XRP’s own ecosystem.

Trading is live 24/7 on SBI’s spot platform with no fees, though strict limits apply. The maximum order size and account balance are each capped at the equivalent of 10 million yen. Large transactions require additional processing time, particularly over weekends and holidays.

While the launch strengthens Ripple’s regulated infrastructure in Asia, the direct benefit to XRP remains contingent on a future XRPL bridge. Until then, the token exists alongside the stablecoin without sharing its network effects.

Technical Stability, Market Indifference

The XRP Ledger itself continues to operate smoothly. New blocks are finalized approximately every 3.8 seconds — a baseline that should support the consistency requirements of a credit protocol. Yet none of this operational health has translated into price action.

The disconnect illustrates a pattern familiar in digital asset markets: infrastructure milestones and regulatory progress often take time to filter through to valuations. The audit clears one barrier. The Japan listing expands distribution. But without validator consensus for native lending or a direct XRPL channel for RLUSD, the market is waiting on the next catalyst — not reflecting what has already arrived.

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