XRP-USD Volume Tops BTC in South Korea as SBI Advances Spot ETF Filing

Ripple's XRP token is experiencing a quiet but sustained institutional momentumThe empirical fact that winners keep winning over the medium term. shift. In South Korea, XRP trading volume briefly surpassed both Bitcoin and Ethereum during peak trading hours, a symbolic moment that signals capital reallocation within the crypto ecosystem. More substantively, SBI Holdings in Japan is advancing a spot XRP ETFExchange-Traded Fund - a basket of securities trading like a single stock., a move that would grant millions of retail and institutional investors in one of the world's largest equity markets direct exposure to the token without custody friction.

The institutional narrative extends beyond Japan. BRICS nations, Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, are accelerating plans for a new payment system designed to sit outside Western-controlled financial infrastructure. Reports indicate XRP is being positioned as a core settlement currency for cross-border transactions, a use case that directly targets the pain point of slow, expensive SWIFT-based remittances. If BRICS nations adopt XRP for trade settlement, the token gains a structural bid from central bank and sovereign wealth fund reserves.

The wildcard is the Trump administration's Clarity Act, which would establish clear regulatory guidelines for cryptocurrencies and stablecoins. Ripple's Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty has positioned the company as a champion of the legislation, framing it as consumer protection. If the Clarity Act passes and XRP is classified as a non-security commodity, the regulatory fog lifts and institutional adoption accelerates. The token's co-founder David Schwartz has even suggested XRP was designed for prices as high as $10,000, a talking point that has circulated in retail circles.

A caveat: Goldman Sachs reportedly exited a $154 million XRP ETFExchange-Traded Fund - a basket of securities trading like a single stock. position, a data point that could indicate profit-taking or repositioning rather than fundamental weakness. Yet despite that outflow, XRP ETF products recorded one of their strongest inflow weeks in months, suggesting retail and smaller institutions are filling the gap. The tension between institutional exit and retail accumulation is a common pattern at inflection points.