XRP's comeback! After the SEC dropped the lawsuit, the volume surged to 10 billion, triggering a wave of institutional buying with its listing on Nasdaq.

After the SEC withdrew the remaining claims in August 2025, the average daily futures trading volume of XRP skyrocketed from less than $1 billion to over $10 billion. Evernorth is going public on NASDAQ through a SPAC merger, planning to raise over $1 billion to establish an XRP reserve. The XRP ETF application is under review, with an estimated influx of $5 billion to $8 billion in the first year.

Five Years of Legal Shadows End, XRP Regains Freedom

In the past five years, XRP has been unable to escape the shadow of the court as a cryptocurrency. This has led to its price stagnating, exchanges delisting it, and institutional trading departments quietly withdrawing, as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) launched an investigation against Ripple Labs for allegations of unregistered securities sales. During this period, other assets have soared. Bitcoin and Ethereum have solidified their status as blue-chip digital assets, while Solana has achieved a self-reinvention through the frenzy of memecoins and on-chain speed.

At the same time, XRP, which was once touted as a global payment bridge currency, sat idly by, waiting for clear regulations from the regulatory authorities, but this wait never materialized. This clarity ultimately came in August 2025, when the SEC officially withdrew its remaining claims against Ripple, ending one of the longest-running legal disputes in the cryptocurrency space.

As the case was finally resolved, the regulatory clouds that had loomed over XRP for years gradually dissipated, allowing the token to trade freely in the U.S. market for the first time since 2020 and restoring its position in institutional discussions. The significance of this victory lies not only with Ripple itself but also in setting an important legal precedent for the entire crypto industry. The court clearly ruled that the sale of XRP on the secondary market does not constitute a securities offering, providing regulatory clarity for other token projects.

After the settlement, the market landscape of XRP has undergone a significant change. With the reduction of compliance risks, liquidity providers have returned to the ecosystem in droves. This return is not gradual, but explosive. Institutional traders, market makers, and quantitative funds that were previously forced to exit the U.S. market or reduce their XRP exposure are beginning to re-establish their positions and trading strategies.

Liquidity Explosive Return

According to data from Coinglass, the average daily futures trading volume of XRP has surged from under $1 billion to over $10 billion. Notably, after Donald Trump won the 2024 election, this trading volume peaked at $74 billion. This peak figure indicates that in a single day, the trading scale of the XRP futures market reached several times its market capitalization, demonstrating extremely high market activity and speculative enthusiasm.

At the same time, the open interest of major derivatives exchanges has also grown by more than 1,000% compared to the same period last year. Open interest represents the total value of futures contracts that have not yet been closed, and the explosive growth of this indicator means that more and more traders are establishing new long or short positions, significantly increasing market participation. The spot price of XRP has also risen by 443%, surpassing the increases of Solana and Cardano during the same period. Therefore, this token has currently become one of the top ten cryptocurrencies by market capitalization and one of the most actively traded altcoins.

Kaiko analysts attribute this new growth momentum to institutional investors rebuilding their exposure. The company stated in its Q1 report: “In the first quarter, the average 1% market depth of XRP across the exchanges reviewed by Kaiko Indices exceeded that of SOL, and by the end of March, it was approximately $4 million higher.” Market depth is a key indicator of liquidity, reflecting how much buying and selling can be absorbed by the market without causing significant price slippage. XRP surpassing Solana in market depth indicates that its liquidity has recovered to a level capable of supporting large-scale institutional trading.

The Three Driving Forces Behind XRP Liquidity Reversion:

Regulatory Certainty: SEC's withdrawal of the lawsuit eliminates the greatest compliance risk, allowing institutions to enter confidently.

Exchange Relaunch: Major CEX platforms restore full trading support

Derivatives Market Reconstruction: Futures and options products are reintroduced, providing hedging and leverage tools.

Evernorth $1 billion Nasdaq listing plan

(Source: X)

This institutional momentum has found a new embodiment through Evernorth, a digital asset finance company focused on XRP, which announced plans to go public on Nasdaq through a SPAC merger. The deal is expected to raise over $1 billion in total proceeds, including the $200 million committed by SBI Holdings, along with additional participation from Pantera Capital and GSR. Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen is also one of the investors.

Evernorth's structure mimics corporate financial instruments, aimed at directly purchasing XRP from the public market, establishing liquidity pools, and launching institutional yield programs. It is noteworthy that the company describes its strategy as “XRP market stabilization and practical plan.” If successfully listed, Evernorth's stock ticker will be XRPN, becoming the first publicly traded instrument to provide regulated exposure to XRP.

This will enable a new wave of institutional funds, pensions, and ETFs to purchase Evernorth's stock and indirectly invest in this high-priced digital asset. Many traditional financial institutions are unable to directly hold cryptocurrencies due to internal policies or regulatory restrictions, but they can buy the stocks of listed companies. The launch of XRPN will provide these institutions with a compliant XRP investment channel.

Cryptocurrency researcher Ripple Bull Winkle believes that this will lead to mass adoption and growth of digital assets, further increasing their prices. According to him: “When a publicly traded company or a regulated fund accumulates assets in the open market, each purchase increases actual demand. There is no pre-mining, no discounts, and no over-the-counter trading. The buying pressure from market interest rates is what causes the supply squeeze.”

XRP ETF Approval and $5 Billion Fund Expectations

With the news from Evernorth, the story of XRP's ETF is also intensifying, as several well-known asset management companies are applying for approval. Although the ongoing shutdown of the U.S. government may delay the approval timeline, the modified application documents before the closure indicate that these proposals remain valid. However, some industry experts believe that the likelihood of these products being approved is still quite high.

If these approvals are realized, some market analysts anticipate that there will be an influx of between 5 billion to 8 billion dollars in the first year. This could position the XRP ETF among the top three digital asset funds by assets under management. Meanwhile, this approval will solidify XRP's status as a legitimate asset class for investors seeking to invest in emerging industries.

This will effectively and officially mark the transition of XRP from a payment token to a recognized institutional asset class, completing the same market maturation cycle as this year's earlier Bitcoin ETF. The success of the Bitcoin ETF provides a template for the XRP ETF, showing that as long as regulatory approval is in place, the scale of institutional capital inflow could far exceed market expectations.

Ripple $3 billion strategic acquisition and bank license application

In addition to speculative capital flows, Ripple has spent approximately $3 billion on acquisitions over the past two years to strengthen its payment and custody infrastructure. During this period, the company acquired Metaco, Hidden Road, Rail, and GTreasury, demonstrating its intention to integrate custody, liquidity management, and cross-border payments within a regulated framework.

At the same time, Ripple has applied for a national bank charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) in the United States and is expanding its licensing in over 60 jurisdictions. Through its Ripple payment network, the company currently connects banks and fintech companies in Europe, the Gulf region, and Africa. Additionally, the company is seeking partnerships globally to solidify its position in the mainstream financial ecosystem.

These measures indicate that Ripple is committed to expanding its volume and integrating XRP into compliant financial channels. The payment volume on the XRP ledger has grown by over 430% in less than two years, and is expected to grow further in the future. In light of this, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse stated, “The experiences of the past few years have profoundly made the industry realize that payments are the primary application scenario for cryptocurrencies and blockchain. Ripple initially entered the payment space precisely for this reason—the infrastructure in this area is complex, siloed, and inefficient, but as we know, it is fully capable of benefiting from decentralized financial technologies.”