Ripple Courts Korean Lenders as XRP Ledger Preps Permission and Batch Upgrades

Ripple pushes Asia-Pacific banking ties at XRP Seoul as XRP Ledger amendments near activation and US spot XRP ETFs pull in $121.4 million.

Ripple is wasting little time converting its Asia-Pacific push into concrete banking relationships. At XRP Seoul, held alongside Korea Blockchain Week, Ripple President Monica Long is set to headline a roster of sessions that includes sit-downs with Kyobo Securities and the commercial lenders Woori Bank and Kakao Bank — the kind of institutional groundwork the crypto industry treats as a prerequisite for real-world use in traditional finance.

Long used the conference stage to sketch out where she sees tokenized activity heading: toward public blockchains rather than walled gardens. Her pitch included two forthcoming capabilities for the XRP Ledger — confidential transfers and mechanisms for delegating rights — both aimed at widening the design space for developers and institutional users. The idea, per the announced plans, is to let complex transaction flows run at the protocol level without sacrificing the transparency of the underlying infrastructure.

Protocol Rollout Set for Early October

Those features now have dates attached. Media reports point to formal activation of the permission delegation and batch processing amendments on October 8 and 9, with the Batch and fixBatchV1_2 changes following one day after Permission Delegation goes live. Nothing takes effect automatically, though: validators must signal support above an 80% threshold across the entire activation window before any of the changes bind.

ETF Inflows Keep Building

Institutional demand through US-listed vehicles has been quietly constructive. US spot XRP ETFs drew net inflows of $121.4 million during the month through September 28, according to media accounts, with total net assets across the funds settling near $1.69 billion after that cutoff. More recently the products logged a daily gain of roughly $14.89 million. Canary Capital's XRPC fund alone took in $3.96 million on Monday, a session in which other issuers reported no meaningful movement.

Escrow Routine Runs on Schedule

Ripple closed out its monthly escrow housekeeping on Thursday, releasing 1 billion XRP before locking 700 million of those tokens back into new custody agreements shortly afterward. The pattern is familiar: unneeded portions of each scheduled tranche typically return to the escrow account, keeping the recurring supply release from translating into a lasting overhang.

Price Action Stays Muted

The token changed hands at $1.49, down 0.7% on the day, with the quote holding above its 50-day average of $1.38. A separate reading put XRP at $1.48 for a 0.6% daily decline. Either way, the gap to the 52-week high of $3.10 remains wide.

Legal Clarity Already in Place, Alderoty Says

Ripple's chief legal officer, Stuart Alderoty, made the case on Sunday that XRP's regulatory standing does not hinge on passage of the US CLARITY Act. He pointed to the outcome of Ripple's litigation with the SEC as well as guidance from the securities regulator and the CFTC as the basis for that view — an argument that, if it holds, would insulate the asset from the legislative calendar in Washington.