Ripple (XRP) in 2025: SEC lawsuit conclusion, record price, ETFs and more

Here’s everything that happened for Ripple and its ecosystem in 2025.

However, the past few months have not been kind to the market and XRP’s valuation has trended south. In addition, large investors (also known as whales) have sold off their holdings en masse, indicating that the downward trend is far from over.

The legal saga and the major takeovers

Ripple started the year quite quietly and was initially out of the spotlight. However, this all changed in March when the company’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, announced that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had withdrawn its appeal against the company, causing real euphoria among the XRP army.

The legal battle had to go through a number of phases before it was finally concluded in the summer. The final judgment required Ripple to pay a civil penalty of approximately $125 million for violating certain securities laws. The SEC initially sought about $2 billion in disgorgement and penalties, meaning the company was ordered to pay less than 7% of what the regulator was pushing for.

That said, numerous analysts and experts considered the ruling a major and decisive victory for Ripple. Some went even further, describing it as a pivotal moment in the industry and one that marks the pro-crypto shift at the SEC following the resignation of former chairman Gary Gensler.

The company’s success this year extends far beyond its court victory. In April, it announced the acquisition of prime brokerage Hidden Road for $1.25 billion, which was seen as one of the largest deals ever in the crypto space. A few months later, the platform was renamed Ripple Prime and its aim is to provide services to institutional clients.

In addition, the company made other notable deals, including the purchase of Rail for $200 million and Palisade. In addition, it announced a $1 billion acquisition of GTreasury, a provider of treasury management systems.

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There were also rumors that Ripple planned to spend more than $5 billion on Circle, the company behind the USDC stablecoin. However, the latter reportedly rejected the offer.

Earlier this month, CEO Garlinghouse dropped another bombshell, saying the entity has received conditional approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Monet to charter the Ripple National Trust Bank. The excitement from the XRP community was more than evident, with some revealing that Bank of America has confirmed the move.

The ETFs and RLUSD Progress

Another important milestone occurred towards the end of the year. It was mid-November when Canary Capital introduced the first spot XRP ETF in the United States, which has 100% exposure to the token. The product had a very successful debut and shortly afterwards Bitwise, Grayscale, Franklin Templeton and 21Shares followed suit. According to SoSoValue, the investment vehicles have generated cumulative total net inflows of approximately $1.14 billion to date.

2025 has also been good for Ripple’s stablecoin. The financial product, which was launched in late 2024 under the ticker RLUSD and pegged to the US dollar, has received support from numerous exchanges, banking giants and well-known entities in recent months.

In July, Ripple selected the oldest US bank, BNY Mellon, to serve as custodian for RLUSD. Meanwhile, the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) recognized the stablecoin within the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC), while Abu Dhabi’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) classified it as an accepted token with fiat reference.

RLUSD’s market cap recently surpassed $1.3 billion, making it the 12th largest stablecoin and the 77th largest cryptocurrency.

The rise and fall of XRP

Ripple’s native token started the year well, crossing the $3 mark in January. Although the following months were volatile and not as successful, the summer brought another major revival.

In July, XRP hit a new all-time high of around $3.65, at a time when the broader crypto market was booming. However, recent months have brought a painful correction. At the time of writing, XRP is trading at around $1.87 (according to CoinGecko data), which marks a 48% decline from its summer peak.

Certain factors, including bearish market conditions and the recent sell-off by major investors, indicate that the pullback may intensify in the near future. At one point near the end of the year, whales released about 1.4 billion tokens in less than a month. They later dumped another 510 million tokens in one week, while around Christmas sold 40 million coins.

These efforts indicate reduced confidence in the asset, which could spread panic across the community and prompt smaller players to cash out as well. It also raises the question that the whales know something we don’t, which could explain their massive selling.