XRP Clears $1.10 Hurdle as Ripple Hedges With Open USD Consortium and On-Chain Data Turns Bullish

XRP rises above $1.10 but remains 69% below its yearly high, as on-chain activity jumps 72% and ETFs see eight straight weeks of inflows. Ripple joins Open USD consortium.

XRP has finally broken above the stubborn $1.10 resistance that had capped its recovery since May, trading at $1.14 and posting a weekly gain of roughly 8%. Yet the milestone sits atop a curious disconnect: while the token’s network activity is roaring and institutional demand through ETFs keeps building, the price remains more than 69% below the yearly high of $3.65 hit in July 2025. Year-to-date, XRP is still down 39%.

The breakout comes as on-chain metrics flash unmistakably bullish signals. Active addresses on the XRP Ledger have surged 72% in the past two weeks alone, while exchange outflows have tripled to approximately 123 million tokens over the same period. Investors are pulling coins off trading platforms at an accelerating pace, draining available supply and reducing sell pressure. That dynamic is reinforced by a record run for XRP spot ETFs: these funds have now posted net inflows for eight consecutive weeks, gathering around $1.48 billion in total assets.

Abseits of the price charts, Ripple is pressing ahead with a two-pronged strategic play that underscores its appetite for payment volume over token loyalty. The company has joined Open USD, a newly formed stablecoin consortium backed by more than 140 financial and technology heavyweights, including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, BlackRock, BNY, Coinbase, Google, IBM, OKX, and Standard Chartered. The initiative, governed by a dedicated entity called Open Standard, plans to offer minting and redemption of its coin free of charge, with reserve income returned to partners after administrative costs. That fee-free model directly threatens established players — Circle’s stock shed between 15% and 17% on the day of the announcement.

Ripple’s role in Open USD is not as an issuer but as an integration partner from day one, positioning the XRP Ledger as one of several possible settlement rails. The reasoning is clear: Ripple wants to capture transaction volume regardless of which stablecoin wins the market. That philosophy extends to its own stablecoin, RLUSD, launched in late 2024 and now among the top ten dollar-pegged tokens globally, running on both XRPL and Ethereum. By hedging with a rival project while keeping RLUSD as a proprietary pillar, Ripple is following the same logic that has guided its recent forays into machine-to-machine payments. Mastercard recently named Ripple one of over 30 launch partners for Agent Pay for Machines, and the XRPL AI Starter Kit already lets AI agents autonomously transact using XRP and RLUSD via the x402 protocol.

The corporate momentum, however, has not translated into a sustained price rally for XRP. Analysts caution that Ripple’s success as a company does not automatically lift the token; transaction fees on the ledger are minimal, and past partnership wins have done little to move the needle. Instead, XRP’s price action appears increasingly tied to broader market sentiment and the mechanical demand from ETF buyers. That institutional channel remains a bright spot: every dollar flowing into spot ETFs must be used to buy XRP on the open market, providing direct, verifiable demand that corporate announcements often lack.

Technically, the break above $1.10 has given buyers a foothold, but the path ahead is narrow. If the new support holds, the next target lies at $1.25. A failure to maintain the level, however, risks a slide back to $1.00, with a further drop to $0.93 if that floor cracks. The recent contraction in trading volume is often a precursor to a significant move, but the direction remains uncertain.

In the near term, the Open USD consortium is more a strategic hedge for Ripple than a catalyst for XRP. The stablecoin is not slated to launch until later in 2026, and its adoption is far from guaranteed. In the background, an XRP Treasury initiative tied to a trademark filing by Ripple-backed Evernorth on the Cayman Islands adds another layer to the corporate chessboard. For now, XRP investors are left watching on-chain activity and ETF flows as the most actionable signals, while the price charts show a token that has finally pushed through one barrier but still has a long climb ahead.