Ripple's CEO Brad Garlinghouse just dropped some news at the Swell 2025 closing — next year's Swell conference is heading to New York City, and this time the XRP community gets full access. That's a pretty big shift considering how exclusive these industry events usually are. NYC in 2026, mark your calendars.

I talked about this opinion with my frens months ago. Looking back now, that judgment may need to be fulfilled: the market will grind down on a quarterly basis, not in the rhythm of a drop followed by a rebound - nor will there be many of the big reversals or so-called fifth-wave markets that many people anticipate. This has been the tone for two or three consecutive quarters. Even if there are some signs of improvement in between, the strength is pitifully weak. At the beginning of October, the position BTC reached is basically the ceiling for this round. Looking ahead to mid-next year, around June and July, it is highly likely to remain under pressure. In August and September, it might catch a breather or experience some sideways fluctuations, but in October, it will have to continue to go down. During this adjustment cycle, mainstream coins like ETH, DOGE, XRP, and ADA are also likely to find it hard to stand out on their own. The market sentiment is there, and trying to hold firm will not work.

XRP's recent rally is quite interesting—over the past 24 hours, it gained 7 points, directly surpassing $2.35, and the technical chart's $2.3 level has been completely broken through. Even more impressive is the derivatives market: futures holdings for BTC and ETH are shrinking, while XRP is adding positions against the trend, increasing by 2 percentage points to reach $3.51 billion, indicating that bullish funds are shifting. On-chain activity is even more significant. The circulation of RLUSD stablecoins has surpassed $1 billion, and the XRP ledger has seen 21,595 new wallets in 48 hours—such rapid expansion hasn't been seen in the past 8 months. Institutional trading volume has doubled, suggesting that large funds are actively involved. The behind-the-scenes drivers have been in place for a while. On November 6, Ripple accomplished two major actions: first, securing $500 million in funding from Wall Street veterans Fortress and Citadel, boosting its valuation to $40 billion; then, partnering with Mastercard, WebBank, and Gemini to integrate RLUSD into the credit card settlement system. This move is bold—using blockchain for payments and clearing within the traditional banking system, a first of its kind. It now appears that the price breakout is well-founded, with on-chain data, institutional activity, and real-world applications all aligning.