From decrypt by Logan Hitchcock

It’s been a pivotal year for the Ripple ecosystem, marked by significant launches and renewed regulatory optimism. That optimism comes despite an ongoing battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that will soon stretch into its fifth year. 

Nevertheless, XRP, a Ripple-linked asset, achieved prices not seen since 2018. In the process, it climbed back into the top three crypto assets by market cap—and now multiple asset managers have submitted filings to kick-start the regulatory process on an XRP ETF. 

Dig into that and more in the year in XRP and Ripple.

Ripple and SEC keep sparring

It’s been nearly four years since the SEC alleged that Ripple held an unregistered securities sale, initiating a $1.3 billion lawsuit against the company. 

A judicial ruling last year concluded sales of XRP to retail investors did not violate U.S. securities laws, a favorable ruling for Ripple. Yet the saga is still unfolding this year.

In October, the SEC filed an appeal contesting aspects of the previous year’s ruling, focused instead on XRP sales on digital asset trading platforms and personal sales by Ripple executives. It was quickly followed by a Ripple cross-appeal, after which Ripple Labs Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty told Decrypt of the initial appeal—“It will backfire on the SEC.” 

When might we know? Alderoty doesn’t think it will take long for a conclusion to come this time around, suggesting a decision could be made by 2026.

XRP ETFs inevitable?

Billions of dollars poured into exchange traded products for Bitcoin and Ethereum in 2024, and XRP joining the party in the U.S. is “inevitable” according to Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse.

Exchange-traded products for XRP already exist in markets outside the United States, but some asset managers have gotten the regulatory process underway in the U.S. in an attempt to provide investors with similar options.

Managers WisdomTree and Bitwise filed for ETFs via the state of Delaware, while 21Shares sent its XRP ETF filing to the SEC. According to analysts, the potential for these ETFs helped influence record-breaking inflows in those products, aiding an XRP price surge as well. 

XRP hits seven-year high

XRP  has captured significant attention in recent months, reaching price levels it had not seen in almost seven years in the process. 

After peaking at $1.92 during the 2021 crypto cycle, XRP broke through the threshold in late November and then extended its gains to a local high of $2.82 earlier this month. In the process, it briefly flipped Tether to become the third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

That rise pushed XRP to a mark it hadn’t traded at since January 2018, when it made its still-standing all-time high of $3.40 according to CoinGecko. 

While the token has since retraced from the local high, it remains one of the top performing major crypto assets of the year, gaining more than 250% in that timeframe.

RLUSD launches

After much anticipation, Ripple’s stablecoin—RLUSD—launched on December 17. Backed by by U.S. dollars, U.S. government bonds, and cash equivalents, RLUSD launched in a year in which stablecoins, or tokens pegged to the value of fiat currencies, jumped in circulation by 56% from $130 billion to $204 billion, according to DefiLlama. 

Designed to provide users with cross-border payment solutions, RLUSD is live for trading on Ethereum and the XRP Ledger.

Regulated by the New York Department of Financial Services, the Ripple stablecoin can be traded on MoonPay, Uphold, Bitso, Archax, and CoinMENA, with more options expected to be available to consumers in the future. 

To avoid the controversy that has surrounded other stablecoin issuers, Ripple will publish monthly third-party attestations to maintain transparency about the stablecoin’s backing.

XRP Ledger joins meme party

Meme coins made a big splash across blockchains in 2024, led by Solana and the more than 4 million tokens deployed on token launchpad Pump.fun. 

But for a brief period, the XRP Ledger joined the frenzy, allowing some traders to turn a few thousand dollars into a few hundred thousand. For example, one user trading the meme coin ARMY registered more than $100,000 in profit and $400,000 in unrealized gains off a $478 purchase just two weeks prior.

The craze led to major activity on the XRP Ledger, amid which validators agreed to reduce the reserve fees, or the amount of XRP required to maintain an account on the ledger.

On December 2, XRP Ledger broke all-time records for new accounts activated and the number of unique active accounts, which peaked at more than 105,000—nearly double the previous all-time high, according to data from XRP Scan. 

While most meme coins on the XRP Ledger have fully retraced, it was a (brief) window into life on the more meme-happy blockchains for participants.