Ripple (XRP) News Today: December 16th

Here’s everything most interesting surrounding Ripple and its ecosystem.

Ripple remains a trending topic within the crypto space due to the multiple ecosystem developments and recent news related to the company. Its native token, XRP, has been on an evident decline as of late, and certain factors suggest the sell-off might intensify in the near future.

The Big News

Last week, Ripple’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, revealed that the entity has received conditional approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to charter Ripple National Trust Bank. He described this as “a massive step forward,” while taking aim at the traditional banking system and those resisting innovation from companies like his own.

The news triggered huge enthusiasm across the XRP army, with many highlighting the achievement via X posts. JackTheRippler, a user with over 430,000 followers, was among those, saying that Bank of America has confirmed the move. Other crypto-related firms that have received such licenses include Circle, BitGo, Paxos, and Fidelity.

Ripple has also advanced on European soil by striking a deal with the Swiss-based AMINA Bank. According to the deal, the company will support near real-time cross-border settlements for the clients of the banking institution using Ripple Payments.

XRP ETFs Hit a Major Milestone

It was mid-November when Canary Capital launched the first spot XRP ETF in the United States that has 100% exposure to the asset. The debut day of the investment vehicle was quite successful, while shortly after, Bitwise, Grayscale, Franklin Templeton, and 21Shares introduced similar financial products.

The ETFs have generated serious interest from investors. Data provided by SoSoValue shows that the cumulative total net inflow into these products reached $1 billion.

Meanwhile, popular companies like WisdomTree and CoinShares have also filed to launch spot XRP ETFs. According to some industry participants, WisdomTree’s product is next in line for approval.

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All Eyes Turned to RLUSD

Nearly a year ago, Ripple launched a stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the American dollar. It is called RLUSD and, in the past several months, gained backing from numerous exchanges and banking giants.

Recently, the stablecoin received serious support in the Middle East. First, the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) recognized it as a crypto token within the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC), followed by Abu Dhabi’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA), which classified it as an accepted fiat-referenced token.

Just hours ago, Ripple disclosed that it will start testing RLUSD on several layer-2 networks like Optimism and Base. The ultimate goal is to make the stablecoin easy to use across many blockchains while keeping it fully regulated and safe. Speaking on the matter was Jack McDonald, SVP of Stablecoin at Ripple:

“Stablecoins are the gateway to DeFi and institutional adoption, and RLUSD is designed from the ground up to be the trusted, liquid medium necessary for users to seamlessly enter, interact with, and exit the entire digital asset economy. By launching RLUSD – the first US Trust Regulated stablecoin on these L2 networks—we are not just expanding utility; we are setting the definitive standard where compliance and on-chain efficiency converge.”

According to the analytics platform Santiment, RLUSD has become the top-trending story in the crypto space thanks to the aforementioned development.

XRP Price Outlook

Despite numerous advancements in Ripple’s ecosystem, XRP continues its downtrend. As of this writing, it trades at around $1.93, representing a 6% decrease on a weekly scale.

Its choppy performance comes on the back of an overall market decline, while the recent whale efforts signal additional problems for the bulls.

X user Ali Martinez revealed that large investors have offloaded 1.18 billion XRP tokens (worth almost $2.3 billion at current rates) in the past month. This development may spread further panic in the space and prompt smaller players to cash out, too. It also raises the question that whales may be dumping en masse because they know something we don’t.