XRP Dips Below $1 Despite Adoption by Korean Bank for Ripple Payments

Markets XRP has fallen below the $1 mark, marking it as the weakest major cryptocurrency over the last day and week, despite Ripple's increasing institutional collaborations.

Jeonbuk Bank to Implement Ripple’s 24/7 Cross-Border Payment Services for Business Remittances

By Shaurya Malwa Updated 23 min ago Published 25 min ago 2 min read

The recent decline in XRP comes even as Ripple has secured a partnership with Jeonbuk Bank, a regional bank in South Korea, which will utilize Ripple's cross-border payment services. However, it remains unclear whether these transactions will utilize XRP or Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin.

On Tuesday, XRP dropped over 1% for the day and more than 2% over the week, solidifying its status as the least performing major token.

This downturn coincided with Ripple's announcement of its third partnership in Korea this year, with Jeonbuk Bank now being the first regional bank in the nation to implement Ripple Payments for international transfers.

Earlier this year, Ripple also formed partnerships with Kyobo Life Insurance and Kbank, focusing on custody and wallet infrastructure. Founded in 1969 in Jeonju, Jeonbuk Bank is the leading lender in its province.

Current bank transfers typically rely on the SWIFT network and can take several days to process. In contrast, Ripple claims its system can settle transactions within seconds to minutes, operating continuously. This service will be available to business clients, including importers, exporters, IT startups, and online content creators.

In a statement shared with CoinDesk, Ripple emphasized that the service provides near real-time stablecoin cross-border settlements but did not clarify which asset would be used for these transactions.

Fiona Murray, Ripple's managing director for the Asia-Pacific region, noted that this partnership signifies a growing trend in Korea’s financial sector, as banks enhance their digital asset capabilities and seek long-term infrastructure partners. She highlighted the crucial role that regional banks play in the economy.

Throughout the past year, Ripple has been promoting its RLUSD stablecoin as the primary asset for institutional transactions. When CoinDesk inquired about which asset the Jeonbuk Bank deployment would utilize, Ripple did not respond immediately.

This ambiguity may help clarify why Ripple's numerous partnerships have not positively impacted XRP's value. The cryptocurrency traded above $3 at its peak last year but has been trending down toward and below the $1 mark in August, despite Ripple's ongoing partnerships with asset managers, custodians, and banks.

The disparity also reflects on Ripple's ledger, where tokenized real-world assets on the XRP Ledger are valued at approximately $1.38 billion, with RLUSD accounting for $845 million, representing over 60% of the total issuance.

Meanwhile, traders remain optimistic about a potential price recovery. This week, futures open interest reached around $2.78 billion, with a ratio of more than three long XRP positions for every short position on Binance, and a similar trend on OKX, despite social media sentiment around the token turning increasingly negative over the past three months.