XRP News Today: XRP Activity Hits Almost 50K, RLUSD Nears $1.8 Billion
Sakshi Jain
XRP News: Ledger Activity Rises 6.4% as Jane Street Boosts ETF Stake
XRP News Today brings a mix of on-chain and institutional signals. XRP Ledger activity is rising, with active addresses up sharply over the past week and touching a two-month high.
On the institutional side, Jane Street has expanded its Bitwise XRP ETF position nearly 60-fold, according to a new regulatory filing. Meanwhile, Ripple continues its South Korean expansion, partnering with Jeonbuk Bank on cross-border payments, and its RLUSD stablecoin supply is closing in on a new all-time high.
XRP News Today: XRP Ledger Active Addresses Rise 6.4% to 16.1K
The biggest XRP News Today headline centers on network activity rather than price. Data shared by crypto commentators shows the 7-day average of active addresses on the XRP Ledger climbing 6.4%, now sitting at roughly 16.1K daily users.
While XRP's price tends to dominate headlines, this uptick in Ledger activity is being framed as a more meaningful indicator, since consistent daily usage reflects real transactional demand rather than short-term speculation.
Analysts tracking on-chain metrics argue that growing network usage often precedes broader shifts in sentiment, even when price action remains muted.
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XRP Ledger Activity Hits Two-Month High as Daily Addresses Reach 49.9K
Beyond the weekly average, single-day figures paint an even stronger picture. Daily active addresses reportedly spiked to 49.9K around August 14, marking a two-month high for the network.
This surge in network usage arrived even as traded near or below the $1 mark, with retail sentiment described as broadly bearish.
The divergence between price weakness and rising address activity is notable, suggesting that usage growth and price trends aren't always moving in lockstep.
Some observers also pointed to declining burn fees despite the address increase, hinting that while more wallets are active, transaction intensity or overall value capture on the ledger may still be limited.
Jane Street Increases Bitwise XRP ETF Stake Nearly 60-Fold
On the institutional front, trading giant Jane Street disclosed a dramatic increase in its Bitwise XRP ETF holdings.
According to a quarterly 13F filing submitted to the SEC, Jane Street held about 1.2 million shares of Bitwise's spot XRP ETF as of June 30, worth roughly $14 million.
That's up from just 20,605 shares three months earlier, a nearly 60-fold increase in a single quarter. The scale of the jump has drawn attention across the crypto community, even as market watchers caution against reading too much into it directly.
Jane Street Holds Multiple XRP ETF Positions Despite Market-Maker Role
The same 13F filing revealed that Jane Street's XRP exposure isn't limited to Bitwise. The firm also reported positions in XRP-linked funds from Franklin Templeton, Grayscale, Canary Capital, and 21Shares.
Because Jane Street operates as one of the largest ETF market makers and authorized participants, it typically holds inventory across the products it trades to facilitate liquidity — meaning these 13F positions don't necessarily represent a directional bet on XRP's future price.
Still, the filing adds to a broader pattern: several major Wall Street firms, including names like Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, have disclosed XRP ETF exposure in recent filings, reflecting growing institutional engagement with the asset class overall.
Ripple Partners With Jeonbuk Bank for Near Real-Time Cross-Border Payments
Ripple announced a new partnership with Jeonbuk Bank, making it the first regional bank in South Korea to deploy Ripple Payments. The deal, unveiled in Seoul, brings near real-time cross-border settlement to a segment of Korea's banking sector that has historically relied on slower transfer methods.
Jeonbuk Bank's business customers — including import-export companies, IT startups, and online content creators — will now have access to faster international remittance services. Ripple's Asia Pacific managing director Fiona Murray called the partnership a reflection of growing momentum across Korea's institutional financial sector.
Ripple Payments Could Cut Business Transfers From Days to Minutes
The practical impact of the Jeonbuk Bank deal centers on speed. Traditional cross-border transfers typically move through multiple intermediary banks via the SWIFT network, a process that can take several days to complete.
Ripple Payments is designed to replace that chain with settlement that finishes in seconds to minutes, operating 24/7 rather than within standard banking hours.
For Korean businesses handling international trade and payments, this shift could meaningfully reduce delays and costs tied to cross-border transactions, while also improving transparency around settlement timing.
Ripple Expands Institutional Footprint Across South Korea
The Jeonbuk Bank partnership is Ripple's third in Korea this year, following deals with Kyobo Life Insurance and Kbank. Kyobo, Korea's largest life insurer, has been exploring on-chain government bond settlement with Ripple, while Kbank, Korea's first internet-only bank, adopted institutional wallet-as-a-service infrastructure through Ripple Custody.
Together, these partnerships span payments, custody, and wallet infrastructure — illustrating Ripple's strategy of meeting institutions at different stages of digital asset adoption. The pattern points to broadening institutional adoption of Ripple's technology stack across Korea's financial sector.
RLUSD Supply Climbs to $1.73 Billion Nearing New All-Time High
Ripple's stablecoin RLUSD is also back in focus. After reaching an all-time high supply of more than $1.8 billion in June, RLUSD's supply fell as low as $1.41 billion in the weeks that followed.
Since early August, however, it has been climbing again, now standing at roughly $1.73 billion — less than $90 million away from a fresh record high. The rebound suggests renewed demand for the stablecoin after its mid-year pullback.
CoinGecko Data (on 18 August 2026 at 7:30 AM UTC)
Conclusion
Taken together, today's developments show XRP-related activity picking up across multiple fronts: rising ledger usage, deepening institutional ETF exposure, expanding real-world payment partnerships in Korea, and a stablecoin nearing record supply.
None of these signals guarantee a particular price outcome, but they do point to steadily broadening adoption of Ledger infrastructure and Ripple's enterprise products, worth watching as the picture develops further.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or legal advice. Cryptocurrency markets are volatile; always conduct your own research before making decisions.
