Ripple XRP/USD is trading at $2.43. With a 2.31% weekly decline, XRP still maintained a 16.03% monthly growth. The price action comes as Ripple is considering a $11 billion acquisition offer for Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, which can revolutionize the stablecoin and cross-border payments landscape.
The takeover can solidify Ripple’s control of the digital finance market, but it may be a sign of a deeper strategic shift away from XRP. Ripple’s aggressive push into stablecoins through Circle shows that it's shifting towards assets with more institutional appeal and less price volatility than XRP. Ripple introduced its own stablecoin, RLUSD, which has a relatively small footprint compared to USDC.
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Owning Circle would give Ripple control of USDC, the most widely accepted stablecoin in traditional finance. Ripple can outpace competitors and introduce a very liquid, regulated asset to its platform, reducing reliance on XRP as a bridge asset. USDC’s institutional reputation and track record of compliance would make Ripple a market leader in both TradFi and crypto.
According to a user on X, formerly Twitter Inc, @R89Capital, the acquisition would show that Ripple believes stablecoins are more convenient for cross-border transactions than XRP, which can put doubts on the latter's utility. Putting the control of USDC in Ripple's hands could lower transparency, and damage the decentralized ethos of stablecoins.
Whale Alert reported a transfer of $237M worth of XRP, sparking rumors of a huge buy order. Ripple CTO, David Schwartz, explained the transaction was probably a withdrawal from an exchange, and not a new market purchase. There was no price movement after this transaction, supporting David's claim and showing the low volatility of XRP in response to large transfers.
A crypto whale has opened a $4.4 million leveraged short position against XRP on the decentralized platform HyperLiquid. The position is on 8x leverage, a sign of strong confidence that XRP is due for a pullback, possibly due to skepticism regarding Ripple’s Circle bid, and the overall trend of the market.
As per CryptoQuant data, overwhelming selling pressure of XRP, specifically on Binance BNB/USD, was absorbed by market demand, indicating strong underlying support. According to CoinGlass, in a day, $8 million XRP positions were liquidated, of which $5.8 million was in long positions. The bias towards bullish liquidations could indicate there has been extreme optimism in the market, and traders are now exposed to unexpected corrections.
XRP’s recent performance has been very dynamic. Ripple’s high-risk acquisition plans, uncertain whale behavior, and increasing bearishness in the futures market are putting its price under pressure. Only time will tell whether Ripple’s takeover of Circle will help the company’s strategy or destroy XRP’s long-term utility.
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