XRP’s Divergence: Network Growth and Whale Accumulation Battle a Market-Wide Rout
Published on 06/25/2026 at 10:05 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin has officially gone live in Japan, marking a regulatory first for a foreign-issued digital dollar in the country. Yet the milestone has done nothing to arrest XRP’s slide. The token is trading near $1.07–$1.09, down more than 8% over the past week and roughly 42% from the start of 2026, as a broader crypto selloff triggered by Bitcoin’s plunge to a 21-month low sweeps across altcoins.
The Japanese Financial Services Agency approved RLUSD as a Category 4 electronic payment instrument under the revised Payment Services Act that took effect on June 1. Ripple, in partnership with the SBI Group — a collaboration that dates back to 2016 — launched the stablecoin on SBI VC Trade on June 24, initially only on Ethereum. Each transaction is capped at ¥1 million (about $6,200). RLUSD is fully backed by US dollar deposits and Treasuries and issued by a New York DFS-licensed trust company. The stablecoin’s market capitalisation stands at $1.7 billion, a fraction of USDT’s $186 billion and USDC’s $74 billion, but Ripple is positioning it as a settlement and collateral tool for Japan’s financial market. SBI also introduced a yen-denominated stablecoin, JPYSC, with no transaction limit, under the same regulatory umbrella.
While Ripple’s expansion in Japan represents a significant regulatory breakthrough, XRP’s price action is entirely dictated by the macro environment. Bitcoin’s drop to its lowest point since early 2025 has dragged Ethereum, Solana, and XRP lower. XRP recently hit a new 52-week low of $1.05, and the gap to its 200-day moving average has widened to nearly 30%. The $1.00 level, which held since the US election in late 2024, is now the critical support. A break below that threshold would mark a devastating psychological blow.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying XRP?
Fundamentals on the XRP Ledger tell a starkly different story. Daily transactions jumped 35% in the first quarter to almost 2.5 million, and the value of tokenized assets on the network doubled to over $2 billion. Yet these metrics are being completely ignored as investors flee risk assets across the board — a flight that is also hitting semiconductor and AI stocks. The Bitwise XRP ETF and the REX-Osprey product have both suffered alongside the spot market, proving that the ETF wrapper offers no insulation from underlying volatility.
Derivatives data reflects the bearish mood. The funding rate on perpetual swaps is negative at -0.002%, and the long-short ratio sits at 0.95, indicating a slight tilt toward shorts. However, there are signs of a counter-move: large addresses have built significant long positions on platforms like Hyperliquid, accumulating over 27.9 million XRP. Meanwhile, XRP spot ETFs recorded net inflows of $2.05 million on June 24, suggesting that some institutional players are using the weakness to add exposure. Whether that whale activity can provide enough support to defend the $1.00 level remains the key question. For now, the market’s fate hinges on Bitcoin regaining its footing and restoring liquidity to the crypto ecosystem.
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