Over the past week, XRP first surged from around $1 to $1.69, a gain of nearly 70%. Then on August 22, it abruptly crashed by more than 12%, triggering nearly $900 million in liquidations. With prices swinging wildly, market sentiment has been swinging like a pendulum. But if you only watch the candlestick chart, you’ll miss two quieter yet more crucial signals: Evernorth received confirmation from the SEC that its registration has become effective, and Ripple Prime launched the Delta One business. These two developments may be the real turning point for XRP.
Classic playbook: a leveraged surge followed by a flash crash
Let’s first recap what happened. Starting August 18, XRP rallied from around $1 to $1.69 within four trading days—an astonishing pace. On August 22, the market suddenly reversed, and XRP dropped more than 12% at one point. In the following 24 hours, global liquidations totaled nearly $900 million. The general view is that the earlier surge built up too many highly leveraged long positions, and with weekend liquidity thin, any pullback would set off a chain reaction of liquidations.
It is worth noting that this sharp drop did not cause institutional funds to turn away. Market commentators claim that XRP-related ETFs have seen net inflows for 9 consecutive days; what has truly been “washed out” is leveraged positions rather than spot buy demand. However, this data has not yet been confirmed by multiple independent sources and will need to wait for official fund-flow data.
The real signal hidden behind the price: Evernorth and Delta One
On August 28, multiple authoritative media outlets confirmed that Evernorth’s S-4 filing for XRP Treasury Company officially became effective, with SEC approval for registration effectiveness. The plan is to list on Nasdaq via a SPAC merger. If it goes through, this would be the first上市 company vehicle in the XRP ecosystem deeply tied to traditional capital markets.
On the same day, Ripple’s institutional brokerage business, Ripple Prime, announced the launch of its Delta One service—its first foray into the stock market. It allows institutional investors to execute total return swaps (TRS) on U.S. stocks, U.S. stock indexes, and digital assets. The customer base includes hedge funds, market makers, and ETF issuers.
Put these two together and the meaning is clear: XRP is transitioning from a “trading asset” to a financial instrument that can be allocated through asset-management frameworks. Public-market vehicles are expected to lower institutional allocation barriers and improve liquidity structure, while Delta One provides institutions with more flexible exposure tools.
Divergence in liquidity: ETFs are buying, while leverage is getting crushed
There are currently two radically opposite types of capital behavior in the market.
On one side is the ongoing net inflow of ETFs (to be verified), along with spot buying that stubbornly defends support at $1.40. Traders have noted that despite heavy selling pressure in the derivatives market, the XRP price can still stay pinned above $1.40, suggesting strong spot-buying support.
On the other side is repeated “squeezing” of leveraged positions. Traders say that multiple “smart money” accounts opened shorts around the $1.45 area, with positions totaling about $4.05 million and leverage ranging from 9x to 20x. The position size increases rather than decreases when the price falls, implying both bulls and bears are betting, and short-term volatility is likely to continue.
On-chain data: activity is rising, but new users have not arrived
According to U.Today’s on-chain data, the number of active addresses on the XRP Ledger reached 500,300—up 187.1% from the prior period. Successful transaction volume rose to about 1.5 million, and the number of payment transactions also increased by 53.5%.
But another metric reveals a hidden concern: the number of new accounts and active accounts fell by 34.6% and 26.9%, respectively. This suggests that growth mainly comes from increased trading frequency among existing users, rather than a concentrated influx of new users. Meanwhile, the total payment amount fell 17.8% to about 245.2 million XRP. The network is getting livelier, but the value per transaction is shrinking. Is this “high-frequency, low-amount” activity, or is it reflecting expanding real payment demand? It is still too early to conclude.
Where things could go wrong: conditions for falsification
The core of this round of XRP narrative is “compliance + institutionalization.” If Evernorth’s listing process changes—for example, if SEC follow-up filings encounter issues, or if the SPAC merger is delayed—then the entire logic would be weakened. The Delta One business also needs to be monitored for actual trading scale and customer feedback; if it is only an “announcement” without business volume, its persuasiveness would be limited.
On the macro level, if the probability of the Fed raising rates in September increases further, the U.S. dollar may break above 100, putting pressure on high-beta assets collectively. XRP’s correction may not be over yet. Technically, $1.40 is the current key level separating bulls from bears; if it breaks down decisively, the depth of the pullback could exceed expectations.
Also, regarding rumors of ETF net inflows: if subsequent fund-flow data turns negative, or if there is a large single-day outflow, be sure to stay alert. Any positive news that has not been confirmed by multiple sources should first be treated as “to be verified.”
Conclusion
Beyond the noise, XRP’s narrative has changed themes: from “lawsuits and regulation” to “compliance and capital.” Evernorth and Delta One are two clues that may not attract attention but are highly meaningful. They may not immediately push up the coin’s price, but they will change XRP’s position in the traditional financial system. Markets can swing sharply, but the long-term thesis can only be validated over time.
We don’t need to pick sides right now—we only need to track clearly.