Mastercard Deepens XRP Ecosystem Ties with Hackathon Sponsorship
Mastercard has deepened its ties to the XRP Ledger by sponsoring an upcoming hackathon, scheduled for October 24 and 25, 2026. The event will focus on payment-related projects built on the network, with developers attending the 36-hour event designing and building payment-focused projects.
The sponsorship is part of Mastercard's growing footprint in the XRP Ledger ecosystem, which has seen the company add support for Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin and Circle's USDC alongside earlier work with Binance, Gemini, PayPal, and Paxos. This expansion of blockchain asset support by Mastercard signals a shift from cautious experimentation to structural integration, which tends to draw more developers, liquidity, and regulatory attention.
21Shares has also made changes to its XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF), switching its pricing benchmark from CME Group to the FTSE XRP Index effective August 27. The company will now pay sponsor fees quarterly in XRP instead of fiat currency, tying the fund's operational mechanics more directly to the token itself.