XRP Steadies at $1.49 as Seoul Disappoints, Brazil Pilot Kicks Off and Two Protocol Votes Loom

XRP trades at $1.49 after the Seoul conference brought no bank partnerships; ETFs saw $3.28M outflows as Brazil pilot and upgrades advance.

XRP changed hands at $1.49 on Friday, eking out a gain of 0.3% on the day even as a much-hyped industry gathering in South Korea failed to deliver the bank partnerships traders had bet on. The token sits 51% below its 52-week high of $3.07, yet remains above its 50-day moving average of $1.40 — a sign that the market is marking time rather than retreating.

Seoul Talks End Without Commitments

Hopes for a blockbuster announcement from Ripple had been running high heading into the XRP Seoul conference. Instead, the event produced discussion but no deals. Executives from Woori Bank, Kbank and JB Bank shared a stage with Sabrina Tachdjian, president of the XRP Asia regional initiative, and Ripple manager Tatsuya Kohrogi. Cross-border payments and tokenized deposits dominated the agenda.

No binding pilot agreements emerged, and no decisions were reached on deploying the technology in live operations, according to media reports. Speculation that major South Korean lenders might formally join the ledger went unfulfilled — at least for now.

The letdown showed up in fund flows. After a stretch of solid inflows — including $22.6 million on September 25 alone — U.S. spot XRP ETFs swung to net outflows of $3.28 million on Friday, reflecting caution among institutional investors.

Brazil Pilot Adds a Second Record-Keeping Layer

Away from the conference floor, the ecosystem notched a concrete win in Latin America. Brazilian market infrastructure provider CSD BR and Ripple launched the first phase of a partnership in late September, using the XRP Ledger to mirror records of investment fund shares issued by investment bank BTG Pactual.

Under the arrangement, CSD BR's internal systems remain the official register of ownership, while the blockchain serves as a supplementary audit and documentation layer. The infrastructure provider oversees more than 22 trillion Brazilian real in registered assets, and the tie-up is intended to make verification of BTG Pactual's fund shares more efficient without altering any existing regulatory responsibilities.

The move fits a broader push to root the ledger more deeply in regulated banking and fund environments. Over the past 30 days, XRP has gained 6.5% as debate over institutional use cases has intensified.

Validators Weigh Two Upgrades

On the protocol side, functional changes are moving toward activation. The PermissionDelegationV1_1 update is in its decisive phase, with media reports pointing to a possible go-live on October 8, 2026, at roughly 21:25 UTC, provided support from trusted validators holds steady. The upgrade would let accounts delegate selected tasks without handing over full signing authority over a wallet.

A separate vote opened Thursday, when developer organization RippleX put the LendingProtocolV1_1 proposal to validators. That package includes closed vaults and revised interest calculations for loans. The ballot is a governance step only and does not mean native lending functions will go live on the mainnet right away.

Meanwhile, validators are targeting October 9, 2026, for activation of the XLS-56 extension on the main network. The change would allow up to eight transactions to be bundled for simultaneous settlement, assuming validator approval remains stable.

Evernorth Merger Nears the Finish Line

Market watchers are also tracking corporate action tied to the token. The combination of Evernorth Holdings and Armada Acquisition Corp. II is closing in on completion. Once the merger wraps up — targeted for October 7 — the combined company is expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker XRPN on October 8. Evernorth intends to hold roughly 473 million XRP after the deal closes.

For now, traders appear to be waiting for fresh catalysts from real-world adoption, with the token pinned near $1.49 and the Seoul summit's empty promise still fresh in mind.