Crypto18 August, 20263 min read
XRP Slips Below $1 As Jeonbuk Bank Adopts Ripple Payments for Cross-Border Transfers
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
first South Korean regional bank to deploy Ripple Payments for cross-border transfers XRP slips below $1 as Ripple expands partnerships
7 outlets told this the same way.
Jeonbuk adopts Ripple Payments
XRP fell below $1 on Tuesday, down over 1% on the day and more than 2% on the week, as Jeonbuk Bank became the first regional bank in South Korea to deploy Ripple Payments for cross-border transfers. CoinDesk said the slide came as Ripple announced its third Korean partnership of the year, with Jeonbuk Bank replacing the traditional SWIFT network with Ripple Payments for cross-border transactions. CoinDesk reported that Jeonbuk Bank was founded in 1969 in Jeonju, in Korea's south-west, and that bank transfers today hop between intermediary banks over the SWIFT messaging network and can take days to arrive.
Ripple said its route settles in seconds to minutes and runs around the clock, and the bank will offer it to business customers including importers, exporters, IT startups and online content creators. CoinDesk added that Ripple described the service as delivering near real-time stablecoin cross-border settlement, without specifying which asset moves the money.
XRP not confirmed
U.Today reported that Jeonbuk Bank's announcement does not say that XRP itself will be used to settle Jeonbuk’s transactions, even as Ripple Payments can operate 24/7 and provide liquidity outside normal banking hours. U.Today said Ripple integrated RLUSD, the highly regulated stablecoin, into Ripple Payments in 2025, but it also noted that Jeonbuk Bank's announcement does not say that XRP will be used for Jeonbuk’s transactions. CoinDesk said CoinDesk asked Ripple which asset the Jeonbuk deployment uses and did not immediately receive a reply, describing the distinction as helping explain why a steady run of Ripple partnerships has done little for the token.
CoinDesk also reported that tokenized real-world assets on the XRP Ledger are worth about $1.38 billion, of which $845 million is RLUSD, and that the stablecoin accounts for more than three fifths of everything issued there. CoinDesk reported that XRP traded above $3 at last year's highs and has spent August drifting toward and now through $1, while Ripple has been signing asset managers, custodians and banks.
Ripple’s institutional push
CoinDesk said Ripple’s managing director for Asia Pacific, Fiona Murray, described the Jeonbuk deal as reflecting growing momentum across Korea's institutional financial sector, with banks building digital asset capability and looking for long-term infrastructure partners. CoinDesk reported that Ripple has spent the past year pushing RLUSD, the dollar-pegged token it issues, as the settlement asset for institutional work, and it tied that push to why institutional adoption has not lifted XRP. The Guardian said European fashion retailers are facing fresh questions over supply chain oversight after a fire at a factory that supplied them killed at least 33 garment workers in Bangladesh, but it also quoted Clean Clothes Campaign spokesperson Ineke Zeldenrust saying the audit system was "fundamentally broken".
CoinDesk reported that futures open interest stood at about $2.78 billion this week, with more than three accounts holding long XRP positions for every one holding a short on Binance and a similar ratio on OKX, even as commentary about the token across social channels turned its most negative in three months. CoinDesk added that combined CEX volumes fell 23.9% to $3.76T in July, the lowest since November 2023, as DEX spot market share climbed to a record 19.5% and RWA perps hit $460B.