Ripple announced a string of partnerships in late October, but several partners plan to settle in its RLUSD stablecoin rather than use XRP. The announcements don't reveal how much XRP the new customers need to hold, and XRP holders have no claim on Ripple's profits.
XRP climbed from $1.29 on Oct. 25 to $1.32 on Oct. 28, a gain of about 2.3%, during Ripple's latest round of announcements. However, the token still sat roughly 11% below its September close.
Over the same September-to-October window, Bitcoin lost about 2.7%, while Ethereum fell approximately 12.2%. XRP's weakness was therefore not unusual among major cryptocurrencies.
Several partners plan to settle in RLUSD
Ripple can earn money from these relationships without passing anything to token holders, who have no claim on its profits. On Oct. 27, BNY announced support for XRP and RLUSD on its digital asset custody platform for eligible institutional clients.
Other deals lean toward the dollar-backed token. Robinhood said it plans to use the stablecoin on XRPL for institutional settlement, and Coinbase added RLUSD across its retail and institutional platforms on Oct. 28.
C2FO's planned Instant Pay service would also settle payments in RLUSD. As a result, a business sending $1 million in RLUSD wouldn't need to buy $1 million worth of XRP, though the network fee would still be paid in XRP.
One million transactions burn just 10 XRP
At the XRP Ledger's minimum fee, one million standard transactions would consume just 10 XRP. Those fees are permanently destroyed rather than paid to Ripple or distributed to holders.
Rising transaction counts therefore tell holders little. Ripple says its products enabled more than $16 trillion in transactions during 2025, but that figure covers its broader business rather than just payments settled in XRP.
Fund holdings offer a countable signal
The Bitwise XRP ETF held approximately 131.2 million XRP at the end of December 2025 and about 413.8 million as of Oct. 27, a 215% increase. Bitwise's filings record both purchases and XRP contributed in exchange for new fund shares, so some tokens can enter the fund without being bought on the market.
The recent partnership releases don't provide the XRP-routing and inventory figures needed to calculate their effect on token demand. Investors who buy XRP in anticipation of growth are judging future demand, not receiving a share of Ripple's earnings.
Source: CryptoSlate
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