Mastercard Bolsters XRPL Presence Amid XRP Price Volatility
Mastercard has expanded its presence in the XRP Ledger ecosystem, joining the upcoming XRP Ledger Hackathon as a sponsor. The event, scheduled for October 24-25, will focus on protocol development, agentic finance, and lending. This is notable because Mastercard's involvement with Ripple-linked infrastructure goes beyond just developer events.
In June, Mastercard announced it would broaden its settlement capabilities to regulated stablecoins, including Ripple USD (RLUSD), across several networks, including the XRP Ledger. Additionally, Ripple and Mastercard had announced a separate initiative involving WebBank and Gemini to explore RLUSD-based settlement for card transactions on XRPL.
XRP has been struggling to hold onto its August rally, trading around $1.38-$1.39 on August 29 after slipping below the $1.40 level. The token reached as high as $1.70 on August 22 before momentum weakened.
ETF demand continues to provide a counterweight to XRP's price correction. U.S. spot XRP ETFs recently recorded their strongest week in more than three months, with cumulative net inflows reaching approximately $1.55 billion.