XRP Price Rises Amid Nasdaq Index Addition, Weak On-Chain Metrics Raise Concerns

Ripple's XRP XRP/USD is trading at $2.23, and has gained 2.32% in a day and 2.59% in the last week. It lost 5.52% in the last month. The short-term positive surge came after Nasdaq NDAQ officially included XRP in its newly updated Crypto US Settlement Price Index.

The addition comes after the Hashdex Nasdaq Crypto Index US ETF NCIQ filed with the SEC, introducing a new benchmark to better represent the digital asset market. XRP, along with Solana SOL/USD, Cardano ADA, and Stellar XLM/USD, were added to the index, which already includes Bitcoin BTC/USD and Ethereum ETH/USD. The addition is part of Nasdaq’s search for a more representative sample of the crypto market for institutional benchmarking.

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The Hashdex ETF tracking the index is unable to hold anything other than BTC and ETH under SEC rules, and has the risk of tracking error and performance divergence. The inclusion of XRP in the index shows that the perception of its market legitimacy is changing, and it could get more fund exposure in the future.

But while XRP's price is rebounding, on-chain data shows that user activity has declined, and payments on the XRP Ledger fell from nearly 900,000 at the beginning of the month to around 600,000 as of June 8. Active addresses have dipped below 20,000, and total transactions dropped from around 1.5 million to 1.1 million during the same period. XRP's key support is at $2.08, and it's trading around $2.25, which aligns with the midline of the Bollinger Bands. Derivatives data shows a sudden spike in futures volume, where it jumped more than 200% to $4.82 billion. Its open interest is increasing.

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The changes indicate that traders are preparing for greater volatility but not committing to a long-term trend. If XRP breaks above the $2.25 level with sustained volume, it can test resistance levels in late May of around $2.60. A breakdown below $2.08 may send the token back into the $2.00-$2.05 zone.

According to macroeconomic analyst, Pumpius, a dramatic price forecast for XRP’s utility in global settlement is expected. He believes that if XRP captures a portion of the $7.5 trillion daily forex market, tokenized real-world assets, and global debt flows, its price might mathematically reach into the thousands of dollars. The forecast is built on velocity models and assumes a high turnover of a fixed-supply asset that functions as a liquidity layer for digital finance.

The valuation story relies on the adoption of Ripple’s infrastructure, such as On-Demand Liquidity and future pieces such as the RLUSD stablecoin. While those systems already support real-world financial institutions, market pricing doesn't reflect the contribution to tokenization and cross-border finance.

XRP's inclusion in the Nasdaq index is a bullish sign of mainstream adoption, but price appreciation will need more than ETF submissions and theoretical math. On-chain signals must rebound to validate the bullish thesis, and regulatory clarity must increase to allow institutional involvement beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum. Until then, XRP is in a holding pattern, featuring in headlines but facing a declining base of network activity.

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