Ripple comes with big XRP news: price suddenly shoots up

Ripple announced a major expansion of its services on Thursday. Ripple Prime now allows major financial institutions to trade day and night in financial products linked to stocks, gold and other traditional investments. The news comes at a striking moment, as the XRP price has risen sharply this afternoon.

Ripple Prime, Ripple's institutional client trading service, has added support for so-called Real World Asset (RWA) perpetual swaps. This allows professional investors to trade products that track the value of traditional investments 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It involves more than 100 different markets, including stocks, stock market indices, publicly traded funds (ETFs), precious metals, energy and currency.

Normally, many of these markets are only accessible during fixed trading hours. With the new service, institutions can also respond to price movements outside opening hours and on weekends. Ripple uses financial contracts offered by Trade.xyz on Hyperliquid, a decentralized derivatives trading platform. One of the first major parties to use the service is the American trading company Virtu.

According to Michael Higgins, international CEO of Ripple Prime, the new service brings traditional and digital financial markets closer together. According to him, institutions increasingly want access to shares, commodities and currencies, without being dependent on the usual opening hours of exchanges.

Clients can also use Ripple USD (RLUSD), Ripple's own stablecoin, as collateral for their trading positions. They can also jointly manage the necessary collateral for different investments. This allows institutions to use their capital more efficiently and manage their risks from one central place.

The announcement is in line with Ripple's ambition to play a greater role in the international financial system. The company has long focused on connecting traditional financial institutions with blockchain technology. With Ripple Prime, it is now further expanding those activities.

For holders of XRP (XRP), the potential impact on the crypto currency is particularly interesting. More institutional activity could strengthen Ripple's position within the financial sector. However, this does not automatically mean that demand for XRP is increasing. The new trading products use Hyperliquid and RLUSD can serve as collateral. Ripple has not announced that XRP is necessary for these transactions.

Meanwhile, the XRP price shows a striking recovery on Thursday afternoon. Data from TradingView shows that XRP was still trading for around $1,286 around 3:50 pm. Then, in less than an hour, the cryptocurrency shot up to a peak of $1.3243. This represents an increase of almost three percent. Around 5.20 pm, the XRP price is around 1.33 dollars.

The increase follows an uneasy afternoon in which XRP previously lost considerable ground. The crypto currency has now completely eliminated these losses. Whether Ripple's announcement is directly responsible for the recovery cannot be determined with certainty.

The XRP price has now broken through the previous resistance around 1.324 dollars and has risen further to about 1.336 dollars. In this way, the crypto currency continues its strong recovery. For traders, the $1.34 limit now comes into view as a possible next resistance. In the event of a relapse, the previously broken level around 1.324 dollars can serve as support.