Crypto infrastructure providers are drawing renewed investor interest as Wall Street deepens its push into digital assets.
South Korea’s government and ruling party have reportedly agreed on a plan to cap the ownership stakes of major shareholders in domestic crypto exchanges at 20%.
The Democratic Party of Korea’s digital asset task force and the Financial Services Commission (FSC) agreed to set the maximum shareholding limit at 20% after discussions, according to a Wednesday report by local media outlet Herald Economy.
However, regulators may allow exceptions of up to 34% for new businesses through an enforcement decree. The threshold references the Commercial Act’s 33.3% veto threshold in general shareholders’ meetings, per the report.
Under the proposal, exchanges would reportedly have three years from the law’s enforcement to adjust their ownership structures. Smaller exchanges may receive an additional three-year grace period. Larger platforms like Upbit and Bithumb, which together control roughly 90% of the local market, would be required to reduce major shareholder stakes within the initial three-year period.
Related: Korea halts trading as key indexes drop 10% on Middle East crisis
Major Korean exchanges exceed proposed ownership cap
Current ownership levels across South Korea’s major exchanges exceed the proposed cap. Upbit chairman Song Chi-hyung holds about 25.52%, while Bithumb Holdings owns roughly 73.56% of Bithumb. Coinone chairman Cha Myung-hoon controls about 53.44%, Mirae Asset Consulting is set to hold around 92.06% of Korbit following an acquisition, and Binance owns about 67.45% of GOPAX.
The proposal, which has received some backing among regulators, faces a lengthy legislative process. A member of the National Assembly is expected to introduce the bill, though the sponsor has not yet been determined. Passage may prove challenging, as some lawmakers, including members of the ruling party, have raised concerns about restricting ownership in the sector.
An industry insider warned that the measure could have broader implications for competition. “This is unprecedented worldwide and has low global consistency. If it is excessively introduced, it could have serious negative effects such as limited competition, slowed innovation, and strengthened barriers to entry,” they reportedly told the outlet.
Related: South Korea orders cross-agency probe after repeated crypto custody failures
South Korea tightens crypto licensing rules
In late January, South Korea’s National Assembly approved changes to the country’s crypto licensing framework, introducing stricter entry requirements for virtual asset service providers (VASPs). The updated rules allow authorities to examine executives and major shareholders for a wider range of potential violations, including drug trafficking, tax evasion, fair-trade breaches and serious economic crimes.
In February, Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Seung-won also announced plans to draft amendments to the Capital Market and Financial Investment Business Act and the Act on the Protection of Virtual Asset Users that would mandate disclosure from individuals who provide investment advice or encourage trading of financial products or virtual assets.
Magazine: Bitcoin may take 7 years to upgrade to post-quantum — BIP-360 co-author
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Indiana Gov. Mike Braun has signed legislation allowing bitcoin and cryptocurrency investments in the state’s public retirement and savings plans, opening the door for state employees to gain exposure to digital assets through self-directed accounts.
The measure, House Bill 1042, requires Indiana’s public retirement boards, deferred compensation committees, and annuity savings programs to offer self-directed brokerage accounts that include at least one cryptocurrency investment option by July 1, 2027.
The accounts will allow participants to allocate a portion of their retirement savings to bitcoin, crypto assets, or crypto-linked exchange-traded funds, subject to investment guidelines and oversight established by plan administrators.
Under the law, participants will be able to select and manage their own cryptocurrency holdings alongside traditional assets such as stocks, bonds, and ETFs. Retirement boards will retain authority to set allocation limits, establish administrative fees, and ensure that account valuations reflect prevailing market prices.
The legislation defines cryptocurrency as a virtual currency not issued by a central authority that functions as a medium of exchange and relies on encryption to regulate issuance, verify transfers, and prevent counterfeiting. Indiana lawmakers said the definition provides clarity for public investment programs evaluating digital asset exposure.
Indiana and other U.S. states love bitcoin
With the bill’s passage, Indiana joins a growing list of states exploring the integration of bitcoin and crypto products into public investment portfolios.The proposal comes amid growing interest from U.S. states and municipalities in incorporating digital assets into public portfolios, reflecting broader trends in cryptocurrency adoption and financial innovation.
South Dakota recently introduced House Bill 1155, which would allow the state to invest up to 10% of public funds in Bitcoin.
Earlier this year, Rhode Island lawmakers introduced Senate Bill S2021 to temporarily exempt small Bitcoin transactions from state income and capital gains taxes, with a $5,000 monthly and $20,000 annual cap.
The bill treats Bitcoin as a “digital, decentralized currency” and allows residents and Rhode Island–based businesses to self-certify eligibility while keeping simple records.
The exemption would take effect January 1, 2027, and expire January 1, 2028, as a pilot program to reduce tax friction on everyday Bitcoin use.
New Hampshire is another state actively championing Bitcoin.
In May 2025, New Hampshire became the first U.S. state to allow its treasury to invest in Bitcoin and other large-cap digital assets, authorizing up to 5% of certain public funds to be allocated into crypto under House Bill 302. BTC currently qualifies under the market-cap rule.
Despite building its own prediction exchange, Robinhood won’t move on from Kalshi any time soon; A meaningful pullback would only shave an estimated 10-15% max of Kalshi volume.
For much of 2025, Kalshi’s rise as the first scaled, regulated U.S. prediction market platform was closely tied to Robinhood. When the retail brokerage launched event contracts inside its app in March of 2025, routing trades to Kalshi as a Futures Commission Merchant (FCM), Kalshi’s trading volumes surged.
That relationship could now face a potentially consequential test. On January 21, it was announced that Miami International Holdings had completed the sale of MIAX Derivatives Exchange (MIAXdx) through a joint venture formed by Robinhood and Susquehanna International Group (SIG), a major global trading firm that also serves as one of Kalshi’s primary market makers and liquidity providers. As part of the deal, Miami International Holdings will retain a 10% ownership stake in MIAXdx.
Like Kalshi, MIAXdx is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as both a Designated Contract Market (DCM) and a Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO), giving Robinhood the ability to list and clear event contracts without relying on a third-party exchange.
“The purchase of MIAXdx accelerates our investment in the prediction markets and improves our position to deliver a better experience for customers in this growing asset class,” said JB Mackenzie, Robinhood’s vice president and general manager of futures and international, in the announcement.
The move raises a central question for Kalshi. If Robinhood gradually internalizes more of its prediction markets via MIAXdx, how much of Kalshi’s current trading volume is realistically at risk?
A Robinhood spokesperson told DeFi Rate that the new exchange is expected to begin operations sometime in 2026, but that no more precise timeline is currently available.
How dependent has Kalshi volume been on Robinhood?
Robinhood’s impact on Kalshi was immediate and substantial.
On its Q2 2025 earnings call, Robinhood disclosed that users traded roughly $1 billion in event contracts during the quarter, generating about $10 million in revenue from per-contract fees. At the time, Kalshi’s total quarterly volume was under $2 billion, leading industry observers to estimate that Robinhood accounted for more than half of Kalshi’s trading during peak periods in mid-2025.
That share, however, did not persist. Kalshi has never disclosed partner-level volume figures, but later reporting painted a more balanced picture. In October, according to Reuters, Piper Sandler analysts estimated that Robinhood users accounted for roughly 25%-35% of Kalshi’s daily trading volume. Reuters described Robinhood as a major distribution partner, but no longer the dominant one, reflecting the growth of Kalshi’s own app.
While it would make sense for Robinhood to eventually prioritize markets listed on its own exchange, there are no signs of an imminent shift away from Kalshi. The Robinhood spokesperson told DeFi Rate that the platform will continue its partnerships with DCMs like Kalshi. In fact, it’s looking to extend those types of alliances, signaling that MIAXdx will be an addition, not a replacement for those partnerships.
“Robinhood has maintained relationships with multiple exchanges since the inception of Prediction Markets,” the spokesperson wrote. “Robinhood Derivatives plans to continue to partner with multiple DCM/DCO partners, supporting access to a diversity of market venues for our customers.”
How much Kalshi volume could actually be at risk?
Based on the Piper Sandler estimates, Robinhood likely accounts for roughly 25%-35% of Kalshi’s daily trading volume. If Robinhood were to offer fewer Kalshi-listed contracts over time and instead internalize some prediction market activity through MIAXdx, the potential impact would likely be incremental.
In a hypothetical scenario where Robinhood internalizes roughly half of the volume it currently routes to Kalshi, the resulting reduction would equate to approximately 10%-15% of Kalshi’s total daily trading volume, based on the analyst estimates. In weekly trading volume, that could translate into a dent in the range of $225-$340M based on current figures, or more depending when Robinhood takes its prediction markets in-house.
A 10%-15% decline would be a slight setback in the near term. But even under that scenario, Kalshi would still retain the vast majority of its trading volume, keeping the impact well short of existential.
How Kalshi could replace lost liquidity and revenue
Even if Robinhood were to eventually reduce or eliminate the volume it routes to Kalshi, the exchange has already shown that its growth is not dependent on any single distributor. As Robinhood’s share of Kalshi trading declined from a majority position in mid-2025 to roughly 30% later in the year, overall activity on the exchange continued to expand, driven by growth across sports, economic, and other event-based contracts, as well as an expanding base of direct users.
That trend reflects a deliberate effort by Kalshi to diversify its distribution across fintech platforms rather than rely on a single retail channel. The company has focused on integrating its prediction markets into existing brokerage and crypto platforms, allowing Kalshi to scale by placing prediction markets inside platforms like Robinhood where users already manage money and trade through familiar interfaces.
In an October 2025 interview with Reuters, Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour said the company was actively looking to expand third-party integrations and viewed broker partnerships as a scalable way to grow access. Speaking at the Solana Accelerate conference last May, Mansour said, “I think within the next year and a half I would say most mainstream financial brokerages like where you have your 401(k)s and others will have access to Kalshi’s products or prediction markets in app.”
That strategy has extended beyond traditional brokerages into crypto platforms. Since joining Kalshi as head of crypto, John Wang has emphasized embedding prediction markets directly into the apps where users already trade digital assets.
“Six months for Kalshi to be in every major crypto app or I have failed at my job,” Wang wrote in a December post on X, outlining an aggressive push to distribute Kalshi contracts through third-party crypto platforms.
One of the most immediate ways for Kalshi to offset any potential volume loss is further fintech partner diversification. There are a number of consumer-facing platforms where its regulated prediction markets are (or will be) available, including Webull, Coinbase and popular crypto wallet app Phantom.
While no single partner matches Robinhood’s scale, the cumulative impact of multiple mid-size brokerage, exchange, and wallet integrations could collectively replace a meaningful share of any lost volume over time.
Kalshi’s growth does not hinge on Robinhood
Beyond distribution strategy, the clearest way Kalshi can offset any potential reduction in Robinhood-routed volume is by continuing to grow its own trading activity. That growth has been quite evident in recent months. Kalshi generated $2.26 billion in trading volume last week, up 4.9% week over week. The run of record or near-record weekly and monthly volume suggests Kalshi’s momentum is being driven by demand on the exchange itself, not just by any single distribution partner.
Those gains reflect more than a short-term spike. Kalshi’s volume growth has been supported by a broader mix of contract categories, higher presence and engagement around events, and expanding participation.
For traders, that dynamic points to a market that is becoming deeper and more competitive. As Kalshi’s liquidity grows and its markets remain accessible across multiple fintech platforms, traders are likely to benefit from better execution, tighter pricing, and more choice, as competition increases among platforms, including Kalshi and Robinhood’s forthcoming exchange.
The survey found younger Americans are far more likely than baby boomers to boost crypto activity this year.
Gen Z is much more likely than baby boomers to trade more crypto in 2026, according to a new OKX survey.
A January 2026 survey of 1,000 Americans found that 40% of Gen Z plan to increase their crypto trading this year. That compares with 36% of millennials and 11% of baby boomers, OKX said.
Younger users also said they trust crypto platforms more, with OKX finding that 40% of Gen Z and 41% of millennials gave crypto platforms high trust scores, compared with 9% of boomers.
“Tokenization can make markets more open and efficient,” an OKX spokesperson told The Defiant. “You can lower minimums, fractionalize exposure to things like funds or Treasuries, and make assets available 24/7 on global rails instead of inside a local branch. If designed well, it can reduce friction and expand participation.”
In contrast, older users were more positive about traditional banks: 74% of boomers gave banks high trust scores, while 22% of Gen Z and 21% of millennials reported low trust in banks.
The survey also shows that younger Americans are more bullish on crypto long-term. OKX found that 52% of Gen Z and 50% of millennials believe crypto could one day match or beat traditional finance. Only 28% of boomers agreed. Meanwhile, 71% of boomers said banks will stay the main part of the financial system.
The report said that different age groups focus on different factors when it comes to trust, with security being the top priority for Gen Z, millennials, and Gen X. Boomers, on the other hand, most valued regulation and legal protection.
“Regulation matters more to boomers because their trust model is strongly tied to oversight and institutional legitimacy,” the OKX spokesperson said. They added that clearer rules could address concerns about consumer protection and custody.
Still, the spokesperson explained that trust depends on how platforms perform over time. “Trust ultimately sticks when platforms prove safety, reliability, and transparency in everyday user experiences,” they said.
OKX also found that boomers were more likely to say crypto does not offer real benefits. Nearly half of boomers said crypto solves “none” of the problems in traditional finance, compared with 6% of Gen Z.
The findings come as crypto continues to move further into the mainstream, with more trading platforms, investment products, and major companies offering access to digital assets.
The reiteration of the payment company‘s plans not to pursue a public offering followed a $500 million fundraise in November, leading to a $40 billion valuation for Ripple.
Ripple Labs president Monica Long has ruled out an IPO for the company, saying it was in a “really healthy position” without going public.
In a Tuesday interview with Bloomberg, Long addressed rumors that Ripple was planning to go public after the company reached a $40 billion valuation in November. The Ripple president said the company was focused on growth following the $500 million fundraise headed by Citadel Securities and Fortress Investment Group that led to its valuation.
“Currently, we still plan to remain private,” said Long, expanding on her comments in November after the fundraise. “Often the strategy driving an IPO is to get the access to the investors and the liquidity of the public markets […] We’re in a really healthy position to continue to fund and invest in our company’s growth without going public.”
The comments from Long going into 2026 came months after the US Securities and Exchange Commission announced it would wind down its enforcement actions against Ripple, fueling speculation about an IPO. Long has repeatedly denied reports that Ripple was pursuing a public offering.
Related: SEC now fully Republican, set for pro-crypto rulemaking in 2026
At the time of writing, the price of XRP (XRP) was $2.20, having dropped by about 6% in the previous 24 hours. The token is the fourth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
OCC grants US bank trust approval for Ripple and others
In December, the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) conditionally approved applications from Circle and Ripple for national trust bank charters. BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos also received conditional approval to convert their existing state-level trust companies into federally chartered national trust banks.
Ripple’s application said its charter would “not be a stablecoin issuer” for its US dollar-pegged coin, Ripple USD (RLUSD), while the other companies will provide a variety of digital asset custody services to users. Of the applicants, BitGo has announced plans to go public, and Circle launched an IPO in May.
Magazine: How crypto laws changed in 2025 — and how they’ll change in 2026
Chinese technology giants, including Ant Group and JD.com, have reportedly suspended plans to issue stablecoins in Hong Kong after regulators in Beijing voiced concerns over privately controlled digital currencies.
The companies were instructed by the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) and the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) to pause these initiatives, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing sources familiar with the matter.
“The real regulatory concern is, who has the ultimate right of coinage — the central bank or any private companies on the market?” one source familiar with the discussions told the FT.
Both companies had expressed interest earlier this year in joining Hong Kong’s pilot stablecoin program or launching tokenized financial products such as digital bonds.
Related: Trump confirms US is in a trade war with China
Hong Kong’s stablecoin push hits a snag
Hong Kong began accepting applications for stablecoin issuers in August. Mainland officials had initially viewed the program as an opportunity to promote renminbi-pegged stablecoins and expand the yuan’s international footprint.
However, the momentum soon slowed down as Ye Zhiheng, executive director of the intermediaries division at the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), warned that the city’s new stablecoin regulatory framework has heightened the risk of fraud.
Ye’s remarks followed stablecoin companies operating in Hong Kong posting double-digit losses on Aug. 1, just after the new stablecoin regulation came into force.
Last month, Chinese financial outlet Caixin reported that Beijing had restricted Hong Kong’s stablecoin activity. However, the report was removed shortly after publication, casting doubt on its claims.
Related: US and China soften trade rhetoric, giving analysts hope of market rebound
China U-turns on Hong Kong tokenization push
Last month, China’s securities watchdog also reportedly instructed several local brokerages to pause their real-world asset (RWA) tokenization activities in Hong Kong, signaling Beijing’s growing unease with the rapid expansion of offshore digital asset ventures.
The move came as tokenization gains momentum in the country. Last week, CMB International Asset Management (CMBI), a Hong Kong-based subsidiary of a major Chinese commercial bank, China Merchants Bank (CMB), tokenized its $3.8 billion money market fund (MMF) on BNB Chain.
Magazine: Back to Ethereum — How Synthetix, Ronin and Celo saw the light
Binance is facing a social media firestorm after one founder’s post ignited a debate about listing fees on CEXs.
Less than 24 hours after a Base builder publicly slammed Binance’s alleged listing policy on X, sparking a heated debate in the crypto community, Coinbase yesterday unexpectedly announced plans to list BNB. Though it’s no longer Binance’s official platform token, BNB — originally Binance Coin — was developed by the exchange, and remains a key asset in its ecosystem.
The drama began on Tuesday, Oct. 14, when CJ Hetherington, the co-founder and CEO of Base prediction market Limitless, shared what he said were Binance listing terms in an X post. The post alleges that Binance — the world’s largest centralized exchange (CEX) by trading volume — asked for roughly 8% of his project’s token supply, broken into allocations for airdrops, liquidity and other marketing activations, for listing on Binance’s Alpha platform, as well as a $2 million security deposit in BNB for spot listing.
Legal Action Threats
The revelation on social media — which Limitless’ CEO later clarified was not under an NDA — set off a flurry of copy-and-paste posts and screenshots across X. It didn’t take long for an official Binance account to respond as well. In an X post, which was later deleted amid community backlash, but not before screenshots were posted, the exchange’s customer support account said it “does not charge listing fees,” and that the CEX “does not profit from its listing process.”
The official Binance support post also claimed that token allocations for listing end up being distributed to Binance users via airdrops and marketing campaigns, and that refundable deposits exist only as a safeguard against short-term exploitation.
However, the X post also provided contradictory statements, saying that the listing deal Hetherington had posted was allegedly proposed by Binance, but later accusing Hetherington of “illegal and unauthorised disclosure of confidential communications with Binace.” The X post also threatened to take legal action against the Limitless CEO.
Community Backfires
That quick denial with legal threats from the CEX triggered a wave of testimony and counterclaims across the crypto community, including from high-profile industry figures.
Mike Dudas, founder of 6th Man Ventures and co-founder of The Block, asserted on X that he had encountered “binance tge listing proposals of the EXACT same nature of cj’s at limitless in the past month.”
Jeffy Yu, founder of O Media, also weighed in, saying Binance had asked for $1 million in cash to list his token. He also noted that Bybit had demanded a substantial amount of tokens plus $250,000, so the team chose Kraken, which requested “$100-200k on top of token supply.”
However, some, like the now well-known trader James Wynn, called the wave of accusations a “coordinated FUD attack” aimed at Binance and its founder, Changpeng Zhao — better known in the industry as CZ.
Cecilia Hsueh, chief strategy officer at fellow exchange MEXC, provided insight into her company’s listing practices. In an X post, she acknowledged that MEXC charges a listing fee, but emphasized that it is relatively small, “probably the lowest among top CEXs,” and primarily allocated to helping projects promote their launch, though she didn’t disclose the figures.
Decentralized rivals were quick to seize the moment. Hyperliquid, the largest decentralized perpetuals exchange, which has recently been clashing with Binance-linked DEX Aster over perps trading volume dominance, highlighted its permissionless listings and emphasized a “no listing fee” model to contrast itself with Binance — without referring to the CEX directly.
CZ Steps In
It didn’t take long for CZ to weigh in on the uproar, and his participation arguably only added fuel to the fire.
In an X post, the Binance founder called Hetherington a “loser,” adding that he “didn’t even know who he [Hetherington] was until he posted this fake image saying I blocked him.”
In another X post the following day, CZ — who stepped down as Binance’s CEO in 2023, as part of a settlement with U.S. regulators — argued that strong projects shouldn’t have to chase exchanges for listings.
“If your project is strong, exchanges will race to list your coin. If you have to beg an exchange to list, then… You need to ask yourself why, and who is providing value to whom,” Zhao wrote.
Zhao’s post directly responded to an X user YazanXBT, who had chimed in on an X post by Coinbase’s head of Base, Jesse Pollak.
Pollak had argued that “it should cost 0% to be listed on an exchange,” in response to Hetherington’s initial tweet with the listing terms. However, as multiple X users pointed out, Coinbase has at least historically been accused of charging exorbitant fees to list a token, including by prominent DeFi founder Andre Cronje. The CEX’s official position, however, continues to be that it does not charge listing fees.
As others pointed out in this week’s debate, a “fee” could also be an issue of semantics, if the exchange requires a token allocation for marketing efforts, as Binance allegedly does.
Historically, centralized exchanges have been known to charge listing fees, often in the form of either token allocations or financial commitments. These fees can vary significantly, with reports indicating that exchanges tend to charge hundreds of thousands of dollars for listings.
BNB Listing Surprises Everyone
YazanXBT countered by noting that Coinbase had not yet listed BNB, currently the fourth-largest crypto asset by market cap.
“Unless BNB (the third largest cryptocurrency by market cap) gets listed on Coinbase, your opinion of how another exchange should list cryptocurrencies is meaningless. Lead by example,” the X user wrote.
A few hours later, Coinbase succinctly announced that it had added BNB to its listing roadmap, with no explicit reference to the ongoing drama.
The move had little impact on the token’s price, which after a recent rally, closed Q3 at $1,030, a more than 57.3% increase within the quarter, after a “mostly stagnant year,” analysts at CoinGecko noted in an Oct. 16 report.
Less than an hour earlier, Coinbase also posted a blog post introducing its new asset listing process, dubbed “The Blue Carpet,” which includes the statement:
“Our listings process remains free, merit-based, and built on trust.”
Earlier that day, Oct. 15, Binance deleted its support team’s post containing legal threats, stating in a separate post from its main X account that while “we stand by our position, the way we communicated was excessive and we sincerely apologize to our users, partners, and the wider industry.”
Binance remains the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, posting a cumulative spot volume of $2.06 billion in Q3, surpassing its prior quarterly record of $2.03 billion in Q1, per CoinGecko.
Charles Schwab is seeing booming engagement from retail investors in its crypto products.
In an interview with CNBC, CEO Rick Wurster said that visits to Schwab’s crypto platform have increased by 90% year-over-year, signaling strong investor appetite for Bitcoin ETFs, Bitcoin futures, and other crypto exchange-traded products.
Schwab clients now hold roughly 20% of all crypto ETPs in the U.S. Wurster emphasized that the company is responding to this demand by providing a wide array of crypto investment options and educational resources, combining digital access with traditional client support through calls and branch offices.
Charles Schwab will also offer spot Bitcoin trading in the first half of 2026. CEO Rick Wurster shared the news during Schwab’s third-quarter earnings call, where the company reported $134.4 billion in net new assets, marking a 48% year-over-year increase.
Earlier this year, the firm announced plans to offer Bitcoin and Ethereum trading, driven by client demand, noting many wanted to consolidate their crypto holdings with Schwab.
Wurster’s thoughts in the Charles Schwab’s earning call marked the first time the bank put a tentative date on the initiative.
The push into crypto comes alongside Schwab’s broader record-breaking quarter: total client assets reached $11.59 trillion, up 17% year-over-year, and daily average trades jumped 30%.
The firm’s strategy, Wurster explained, focuses on offering both advanced trading platforms like ThinkorSwim and guidance for new investors, making crypto accessible and understandable for a broader audience.
Traditional finance is jumping into bitcoin
Earlier this month, Morgan Stanley released a report telling clients to allocate at maximum between 2% and 4% of their portfolios to crypto, primarily bitcoin, based on risk profiles. The report described bitcoin as a scarce asset akin to digital gold and suggested it could play a legitimate role in diversified strategies.
It recommended regular portfolio rebalancing, ideally quarterly, and gaining exposure through exchange-traded products to manage volatility.
The guidance followed the firm’s expansion of digital asset access via E*Trade and coincided with bitcoin reaching a new all-time high of around $126,200.
Earlier this week, U.S. Bank announced their new Digital Assets and Money Movement organization, in hopes to “to accelerate development of and grow revenue from emerging digital products and services such as stablecoin issuance, cryptocurrency custody, asset tokenization and digital money movement.”
Also, institutional holdings in Bitcoin ETFs rose to $870.7 million in Q3 2025, up $117.3 million from the previous quarter.
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Ripple Labs is spearheading an effort to raise at least $1 billion to accumulate XRP via a new digital-asset treasury, or DAT, according to Bloomberg, signaling that the latest bout of market turmoil has not dislodged heavyweight players from advancing aggressive balance-sheet strategies tied to crypto assets.
$1 Billion XRP Buying Pressure Ahead?
People familiar with the matter told Bloomberg the vehicle would be capitalized through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), with Ripple also planning to contribute some of its own XRP. “Representatives for Ripple did not respond to requests for comment. Exact terms of the transaction remain under discussion and could change,” Bloomberg reported, underscoring that while the plan is live, its contours are not yet finalized.
The timing places Ripple’s move squarely against a fragile market backdrop. A week after a heavy selloff triggered record liquidations, sentiment remains brittle. Against that context, the contemplated DAT is notable on several fronts.
First, the scale: “Ripple Labs Inc. is leading an effort to raise at least $1 billion to accumulate XRP,” Bloomberg reported, adding that if completed, “it would be the biggest one to focus on XRP.”
Second, the structure: a SPAC-funded DAT reflects the 2025 wave of publicly listed token accumulators that have proliferated through reverse takeovers or SPAC listings. Bloomberg observed that “throughout 2025, digital-asset boosters set up an array of publicly listed token accumulators,” noting that “today, there are more than 300 entities holding Bitcoin alone, according to BitcoinTreasuries.net.”
The Market Backdrop
While Bitcoin-focused treasuries dominate that landscape, Bloomberg emphasized that “XRP hasn’t drawn the same level of interest from DAT investors as Bitcoin.” This initiative would attempt to change that balance. By design, a DAT channels committed capital into a defined acquisition mandate—here, XRP—creating programmatic buy-side flow that can be measured against circulating supply dynamics and secondary-market liquidity.
The framing of $1 billion in potential purchasing capacity invites obvious questions about incremental demand. Yet the wire also cautions that investor appetite for token accumulators has cooled: “Investors have also gotten more skeptical about DATs, with shares of major crypto accumulators including Michael Saylor’s Strategy Inc. and Japan’s Metaplanet Inc. posting steep declines in recent months.” That skepticism is precisely the environment in which Ripple is attempting to stand up a new vehicle.
While XRP-specific accumulation vehicles have been relatively scarce compared to Bitcoin, there are a few already established: In May, sustainable-energy firm VivoPower International announced a $121 million fundraising.
Notably, the report comes the same day that Ripple agreed to buy treasury management software provider GTreasury for $1 billion, according to a Thursday announcement.
At press time, XRP traded at $2.33.
Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
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