XRP-USD Eyes $10,000 Co-Founder Claim as CME Futures Hit $63B Annual Volume

Ripple's XRP has shed its fringe-asset status. CME Group's regulated futures market for XRP logged $63B in annual volume by year-end, with $238M trading daily through institutional channels. That scale rivals emerging crypto markets and signals genuine institutional appetite for the token beyond retail speculation.

White House officials told market participants this week that a Strategic Crypto Reserve announcement is imminent, with credible reports suggesting XRP could be included. Such an endorsement would mark a watershed moment for a token that has spent years fighting regulatory headwinds and SEC litigation. If the U.S. government formally adopts XRP for cross-border settlement or reserve management, it would validate Ripple's core narrative: XRP as infrastructure, not speculation.

Banking sector momentumThe empirical fact that winners keep winning over the medium term. is also shifting. Bank of America formally recommended clients allocate up to 4% of portfolios to crypto, a landmark institutional shift. Separately, BRICS nations are accelerating plans for a new payment system outside Western-controlled finance, with reports of XRP being earmarked for cross-border settlement infrastructure. These twin tailwinds suggest XRP is being repositioned as a geopolitical and financial systems play, not a retail memecoin.

Skeptics counter that regulatory risk remains acute. Ripple's ongoing legal battles with the SEC could inflict sudden damage. Adoption announcements, while bullish, often overshoot near-term fundamentals. The token's price remains highly sensitive to sentiment shifts and Fed policy moves that lift or compress risk appetite for alternative assets.