XRP's Institutional Ambitions Outpace Its Spot Market: Swaps Desk, Nasdaq Debut, and a Token Down 5% on the Week

Ripple Prime launches delta-one desk for institutional swaps; XRP ETFs hit $110M weekly inflows, but token price lags amid regulatory uncertainty.

The gap between where XRP is heading institutionally and where its token trades today has rarely been wider. Ripple Prime, the company's prime brokerage arm, has formally launched a delta-one desk that lets institutional clients execute total-return swaps on US-listed equities, indices, and digital assets — a move that pushes Ripple deeper into traditional capital markets territory than ever before.

The desk, which went live on Thursday, marks Ripple Prime's first foray into the equity space, according to Bloomberg. The unit carries more than $1 billion in regulatory net capital, and its balance sheet has been reinforced recently by a $275 million private placement of unsecured senior notes, following a $200 million credit facility secured from Neuberger Specialty Finance. The target clientele — hedge funds, market makers, and ETF issuers — signals that Ripple is positioning its infrastructure as a bridge between conventional finance and the crypto ecosystem rather than a vehicle solely for its native token.

That institutional push is running in parallel with a remarkable stretch for XRP exchange-traded funds. Spot XRP ETFs logged their strongest week of the year through August 28, pulling in net inflows of $110.49 million, according to Coinbase data. Cumulative net inflows now stand at $1.66 billion, with total net assets across the funds reaching $1.44 billion. A single trading day on August 26 brought $28.14 million — the highest daily inflow in over seven months — and the buying has continued since, with another $26.2 million arriving on Saturday. Notably, that same day saw Bitcoin ETFs bleed outflows, underscoring the rotation toward XRP exposure.

The token itself, however, is telling a different story. XRP trades at $1.39, up 0.5% on the day, but the weekly picture shows a 5.0% decline, triggered by a broad crypto sell-off that media reports attribute to Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's Saturday speech in Jackson Hole. Over 30 days, the picture brightens considerably: XRP is up 28% and sits roughly 22% above its 50-day moving average of $1.14. Still, the token remains far from its 52-week high of $3.18, set in mid-September of last year.

Investors are also tracking a corporate development that could reshape XRP's public market footprint. Ripple-backed Evernorth Holdings has received SEC effectiveness for its registration tied to the merger with Armada Acquisition Corp. II. Shareholders vote on September 30; if approved, the combined entity would list on the Nasdaq under the ticker XRPN within the current or following quarter. Evernorth brings an initial stash of 473 million XRP tokens into the deal and says it has raised more than $1 billion in gross proceeds, with SBI Group contributing $200 million and additional backing from Ripple, Pantera Capital, Kraken, GSR, and Arrington Capital.

On the technical side, the XRP Ledger is closing in on a stability-focused upgrade. The fixCleanup3_3_0 amendment has reached 82.86% validator consensus, clearing the threshold needed to enter a two-week activation window. The earliest possible mainnet activation is September 11 — but if validator support slips to 80% or below during that period, the amendment fails and the 14-day clock resets. The package bundles fixes for single asset vaults, the lending protocol, automated market makers, the permissioned DEX, checks, and pseudo-accounts. It introduces no new headline features; the emphasis is squarely on stability. That follows the early-August release of version 3.3.0, which brought private transfers, batch transactions, and sponsored fees aimed at enterprise clients.

Washington remains the wildcard. The US Senate has scheduled a cloture vote on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act for September 15, a procedural step requiring 60 votes to advance debate. Majority Leader John Thune filed the motion after pressure from President Donald Trump. But prediction markets have soured on the legislation's chances: the probability of passage this year has fallen from a peak of 58% to roughly 19.5% — a sobering signal for investors hoping for swift regulatory clarity.

The coming weeks will test whether XRP's institutional momentum can eventually drag the spot price along with it. Two dates stand out: the potential ledger activation on September 11 and the Senate vote four days later. For now, the market is watching a token whose fundamentals are improving faster than its price chart suggests.