XRP news today: XRP's Price Lags Utility as OTC Transactions Hide Demand

XRP, a digital asset integral to Ripple’s payment infrastructure, has long been recognized for its speed, scalability, and low transaction costs. Despite facilitating billions in cross-border transactions and powering global banking infrastructure, XRP’s market price has remained relatively stagnant, failing to reflect its extensive utility. This disconnect has sparked fresh analysis from the crypto commentary account All Things XRP, which delves into why XRP’s price has not yet aligned with its real-world utility.

The primary reason for this disconnect, according to All Things XRP, is the way XRP is currently being used by institutions. A significant volume of XRP transactions, particularly those involving banks and large financial institutions, occurs over-the-counter (OTC). This method allows entities to trade large quantities of XRP directly, bypassing public exchanges. As a result, the demand for XRP does not translate into visible price pressure on the open market, making its usage invisible to everyday traders and investors.

However, the landscape is poised for change. Ripple’s recent acquisition of prime brokerage platform Hidden Road, which moves over $3 trillion in yearly volume, could significantly alter the dynamics. If even a modest portion of that transactional flow begins to route through the XRP Ledger (XRPL) in a public, exchange-visible manner, the resulting demand could shift the price dynamics dramatically. This real demand hitting real exchanges could have a potentially explosive impact on XRP’s price.

Additionally, the broader crypto market is anticipating a shift in how institutional investors can access XRP. According to the analyst's forecast, there is an 85% chance of an XRP futures ETF being approved in 2025. Such developments historically result in massive liquidity increases, which are essential for upward price movement. The role of speculation here cannot be ignored. Traders are well aware of XRP’s growing list of partnerships, CBDC initiatives, and now the possibility of ETF listings. As All Things XRP emphasized, “Speculation is the bridge between utility and price. That bridge is being built right now.”

A key distinction highlighted in the analysis is the difference between XRP and other digital assets like Bitcoin. While Bitcoin is primarily viewed as a store of value, XRP is rapidly evolving into a financial infrastructure. Teucrium’s CEO recently asserted that XRP’s real-world utility already surpasses that of Bitcoin. As markets mature and move toward utility-driven value assessments, assets like XRP that serve a tangible function may begin to see their prices better reflect their significance.

This is further underscored by the growing belief that liquidity drives network value. As XRP becomes increasingly critical to global payment systems and on-chain liquidity improves, market forces will eventually align price with utility. One of the most commonly cited critiques of XRP is that Ripple could still operate without it. While technically true in today’s OTC-dominated environment, such logic breaks down as more use cases begin to leverage public rails. As institutional demand starts appearing on public markets, XRP’s utility will become more visible, and its price will no longer be insulated from that activity.

All indicators suggest that XRP may be nearing a tipping point. With infrastructure, regulatory clarity, institutional momentum, and speculative interest all converging, the disconnect between XRP’s real-world utility and its market price looks increasingly unsustainable. As All Things XRP concluded, “XRP’s price is lagging utility. That gap won’t last forever. The world is slowly starting to value utility. XRP might just be the first to prove: Real use = Real price movement.”

For those watching the digital asset space, XRP remains one of the most compelling case studies of how real-world utility may ultimately become the defining driver of value in the next phase of the crypto market.