Ripple Prime secured a $200 million Neuberger Berman facility to expand margin lending across equities, fixed income and crypto.
Crypto pundit SMQKE has shared an important thing that XRP holders have to remember when it comes to the altcoin’s price. He alluded to the token’s historical price appreciation and noted that XRP is better positioned to record more significant gains following Ripple’s recent acquisitions. What To Remember About XRP’s Price In an X post, SMQKE reminded XRP holders that the token delivered nearly 350x returns between 2017 and 2018, while Bitcoin and Ethereum gained 14x and 100x, respectively, during that period. He noted that this means XRP’s price increase was roughly 24x steeper than Bitcoin’s. Related Reading: XRP Ledger Hits New RWA Milestone, But Will This Have Any Impact On The Price? The pundit remarked that this occurred before Ripple completed any of its major institutional acquisitions, with XRP recording those gains simply due to early network momentum. Now, the fundamentals are believed to be more bullish as Ripple has completed strategic acquisitions of over $3 billion since 2017 to build institutional-grade infrastructure. SMQKE stated that these key moves include Ripple’s 2023 acquisition of Metaco for $250 million, which now provides bank-grade custody used by G-SIBs. In 2024, the crypto firm acquired Standard Custody, which is a New York-regulated trust services provider. Most of its acquisitions came last year, which have been bullish for XRP. Ripple acquired Hidden Road, which is now Ripple Prime, for $1.25 billion. SMQKE noted that this is a prime brokerage that clears trillions annually. Ripple also acquired the stablecoin payments platform Rail, the corporate treasury management platform GTreasury, and the wallet and custody provider Palisade last year. The pundit stated that these acquisitions create a much stronger foundation for durable price appreciation in XRP. He also alluded to the potential integration of XRP into SWIFT, FedNow, and DTCC. Based on this, SMQKE remarked that the altcoin’s past returns may have only been a preview of what its future network value could become. Why Price Is Still Low SMQKE alluded to a statement from former Ripple executive Marcus Treacher, who noted that XRP isn’t a speculative currency but rather a long-term play for the future. He highlighted how the altcoin could grow massively in value over the long term as a result of what Ripple is building with XRP. Related Reading: XRP OI Z-Score Just Dropped To Levels Seen Before Its 600% Rally In 2024 Treacher noted that transforming how payments work worldwide is a big deal and that once they achieve this with the XRP Ledger, everything else will start to fall into place. Meanwhile, SMQKE mentioned that news doesn’t move prices and that utility does. As such, he suggested that the focus should be on expanding XRP’s use cases and that the price will rise significantly as the altcoin continues to gain adoption. At the time of writing, the XRP price is trading at around $1.39, up in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap. Featured image from Adobe Stock, chart from Tradingview.com
The rating, which is its lowest investment-grade tier, leans heavily on Ripple’s balance sheet of $57 billion in cash and XRP holdings.
Crypto pundit X Finance Bull has explained how XRP is positioned to absorb a share of the $100 trillion in assets that the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has in custody. He notably mentioned Ripple and the role the crypto firm is playing in making this possible for XRP. How XRP Is Positioned To Take A Share of DTCC’s $100 Trillion Assets In an X post, X Finance Bull noted that in 2025, DTCC filed patents that named Ripple and the XRP Ledger as compatible infrastructure for tokenized finance. Following that, Ripple acquired Hidden Road, a prime brokerage that clears $3 trillion annually for over 300 institutional clients, for $1.25 billion. Related Reading: Why SWIFT’s Latest Global Payments Infrastructure Is Bullish For XRP Holders The pundit then mentioned that earlier this month, Hidden Road, which is now Ripple Prime, was added to the DTCC’s NSCC directory. He noted that this is the same clearing infrastructure used by Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan. X Finance Bull added that no crypto company has ever achieved this feat, with Ripple now embedded inside Wall Street’s machinery. The pundit believes that these developments position XRP to gain a share of DTCC’s custody assets. X Finance Bull noted that the tokenization market is projected to hit between $16 and $30 trillion by 2030. Meanwhile, the DTCC’s director has spoken about a $100 trillion tokenization goal. He added that Ripple is inside the system and alleged that there are stated plans to migrate post-trade activity to the XRP Ledger. The pundit stated that noting that is guaranteed for XRP, but that the positioning is undeniable. In line with this, he remarked that XRP holders aren’t betting on hype but on infrastructure that is already built from the inside out. Ripple Working To Improve XRP Ledger’s Security Ripple has unveiled new plans to improve the XRP Ledger’s security as more institutions adopt the network and tokenize real-world assets on it. Ripple’s Head of Engineering, Ayo Akinyele, announced in an X post that they are taking a more proactive, AI-driven approach to strengthen the network’s security. Related Reading: Why The XRP Supply In The Billions Is Not A Problem This approach will include AI-assisted testing across the development lifecycle, a dedicated red team, and higher standards for how they evaluate changes before they go live. The Ripple executive noted that the goal is to continuously strengthen the XRP Ledger’s reliability as the network scales to support global payments, tokenized assets, and institutional use cases. It is worth noting that the XRP Ledger currently ranks 8th in tokenized RWA, with a total tokenized value of $1.9 billion on the network, according to RWA.xyz. Ripple has continued to secure partnerships with institutions that it has onboarded to tokenize their financial products on the network. At the time of writing, the XRP price is trading at around $1.36, down over 2% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap. Featured image from Adobe Stock, chart from Tradingview.com
Ripple’s push into traditional finance appears to have taken another step forward after its institutional brokerage platform, Hidden Road, was listed in the National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCC) directory under the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC). The implications of this development, which recently went live, are massive for both Ripple and XRP. Members of the XRP community are seeing the development as a signal that Ripple is steadily positioning itself inside the infrastructure that powers conventional financial markets. Hidden Road’s DTCC Listing Places Ripple Inside Wall Street’s Infrastructure On March 2, 2026, a quiet but seismic event occurred in the crypto world. The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, the backbone of the US securities market, officially added Hidden Road Partners CIV US LLC to its National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCC) Market Participant Identifiers directory. Related Reading: Ripple Exec Clears The Air On Blocked XRP Transactions – When Does It Happen? Ripple’s decision to acquire Hidden Road was already one of the boldest moves the crypto industry had ever seen. Hidden Road, now operating as Ripple Prime following Ripple’s $1.25 billion acquisition in 2025, is a global prime brokerage. Before Ripple acquired the company, Hidden Road was already processing financing trades for over 300 institutional clients, moving approximately $3 trillion annually. Gaining a listing on the NSCC directory grants a firm direct operational standing within the post-trade workflows used by the world’s largest financial institutions. Ripple has done something no crypto company has done before: it has embedded itself into the very machinery of Wall Street. The NSCC listing means Ripple Prime can now process over-the-counter trades through the NSCC’s centralized clearing system. Ripple’s former CTO, David Schwartz, also acknowledged the development on X, responding to a post about the update with the short remark: “Seems important.” Interestingly, Schwartz also noted that the update comes from something that’s been in the works since a bit before Ripple’s acquisition of Hidden Road and rebranding to Ripple Prime was 100% final. XRP Holders See The Writing On The Wall The XRP community’s reaction has been a mix of serious institutional analysis and unmistakable excitement. Many holders see the DTCC listing as the clearest signal yet that Ripple is no longer building toward mainstream finance but is now arriving inside it. That perspective gained further traction after David Schwartz publicly reacted to the update with his brief response. Related Reading: The Uncomfortable Truth About XRP That Shows How High Price Can Actually Go “Important milestone for Ripple Prime,” wrote one X user. Another X user known as SMQKE noted that Ripple’s Hidden Road acquisition and the recent move will supercharge XRP’s utility. The contention is that Ripple Prime will start to gradually move parts of its post-trade processes onto the XRP Ledger. Even if only a portion of that institutional volume were to eventually move through XRPL-based settlement systems, the development could significantly increase blockchain activity tied to Ripple’s ecosystem. Featured image from Getty Images, chart from Tradingview.com
XRP is trading at around $2.06 on January 13, 2026, leaving its price action a full step below the zone that capped its last rally that ended with a high of $3.65 in July 2025. However, predictions that point to XRP reclaiming that peak and then pushing into new highs above $3.8, have been on the front page of bank research notes and trader-led chart projections. Notably, various technical analyses have suggested that XRP is programmed to return back into the upper-$3s and into new price territories this year. Standard Chartered’s XRP Target Clears $3.8 XRP’s all-time high price now looks out of reach, especially considering the cryptocurrency is now struggling to leave $2 behind. At the time of writing, XRP has dropped by about 44% from its July 2025 peak of $3.65, but institutional buys from Spot XRP ETFs are still giving glimmers of hope. Related Reading: XRP Back At The Edge: Will Breaking $2 Barrier Rewrite Its History? One of the most recently notable institutional-style projections from XRP comes from Standard Chartered’s digital assets research, which lays out a multi-year path that sees XRP breaking well above the $3.8 threshold. According to analysts at the bank, XRP is slated to reach as high as $8 by the end of 2026, a level that comfortably eclipses the previous peak and implies roughly 300% upside from current levels if certain conditions hold. Interestingly, this outlook came from Geoffrey Kendrick, Standard Chartered’s Global Head of Digital Assets Research. The prediction was made based on an outlook of continued institutional adoption and strong inflows into XRP-based spot ETFs. Technical Outlooks As Ripple Heads Into A Consequential 2026 Recent technical commentary from multiple analysts has converged on a bullish bias for XRP. For instance, XRP analyst EGRAG CRYPTO pointed out a developing breakout retest structure on the monthly candlestick timeframe. According to the analyst, historical probabilities favor upside as long as XRP holds above the $1.60 to $1.40 range on higher timeframes, with long-term channel projections placing the XRP price as high as $22. For a shorter-term perspective, Crypto Feras described XRP’s recent break above $2 as a bullish reversal signal. His analysis points to $2.67 and $3.01 as the next resistance levels, areas that could open the path toward a full retest of the prior peak near $3.8 if cleared. Adding to this, ChartNerd noted that XRP’s long-term upside fractal structure is still valid despite the recent XRP price correction. Related Reading: Analyst Updates XRP Price Prediction: Why $16 Is Still On The Table These price projections are being viewed more favorably against the backdrop of Ripple’s momentum heading into the year. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse recently pointed to strong progress in 2025 with examples of major acquisitions of Ripple Prime and GTreasury and a growing global licensing footprint. Now that Ripple is positioning itself for what its leadership has described as a consequential 2026, the combination of technical outlooks and company fundamentals has strengthened the narrative that XRP could be approaching a move to new all-time highs. Featured image from Adobe Stock, chart from Tradingview.com