Mastercard Boosts Crypto Involvement with XRP Ledger Hackathon Sponsorship
Mastercard has announced its sponsorship of the XRP Ledger Hackathon on October 24-25, just ahead of Ripple's Swell 2026 event. The hackathon focuses on payment projects using the XRP Ledger network, highlighting Mastercard's growing involvement in crypto, including partnerships with Ripple and other blockchain firms.
The event comes as 21Shares updated its XRP ETF pricing benchmark to the FTSE XRP Index and changed sponsor fee payments to quarterly in XRP. This move coincides with rising inflows into U.S. spot XRP ETFs, signaling growing investor interest in regulated XRP products and blockchain payment solutions.
XRP's price has recently corrected from a 27% weekly gain, dipping to around $1.41 after reaching nearly $1.70 last week. The decline reflects pressure from high leveraged positions on Binance, which hit a peak since January, and significant long positions.