Ripple’s 2026 banking wins fail to lift XRP as institutions favour stablecoin settlement
XRP has fallen 41 per cent since January as only 40 per cent of RippleNet partners use On-Demand Liquidity, the service that drives token demand.
Ripple has finalised ten major banking partnerships in 2026, securing agreements with financial giants including Deutsche Bank, Société Générale, JPMorgan and Mastercard. Despite these high-profile institutional wins, XRP holders have seen no corresponding financial benefit, with the token’s price falling approximately 41 per cent since January. The disconnect stems from the structure of these deals, which largely bypass the XRP Ledger or utilise the token only for negligible network fees rather than as a settlement asset.
Three of the ten major agreements, involving Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan and Mastercard, utilised only Ripple’s enterprise messaging software with no involvement from the XRP Ledger. The remaining seven deals utilised the ledger but settled in Ripple’s dollar-pegged stablecoin, RLUSD. In one instance, a cross-border tokenised Treasury transaction settled in under five seconds, with XRP used solely to pay a network fee averaging $0.0002 per transaction. Convera’s $190 billion payment network also operates on a stablecoin sandwich model involving fiat and RLUSD, further reducing the need for the native token.
Only 40 per cent of RippleNet’s over 300 global partners currently use On-Demand Liquidity (ODL), the specific service that requires XRP as a settlement asset. ODL converts currency into XRP, moves it across the ledger, and converts it back upon arrival, creating direct buy and sell pressure. When institutions opt for RippleNet or RLUSD instead, XRP remains static. RLUSD, launched in late 2024 with a $1.5 billion market cap, offers a stable dollar peg that appeals to treasury departments seeking to avoid the price volatility associated with holding XRP.
The lack of ODL adoption in high-volume corridors remains a critical barrier to price appreciation. Analysts note that regions such as the Middle East and Africa, where Sub-Saharan corridors carry some of the world’s highest remittance fees, are ideal for ODL’s cost-saving benefits. However, none of Ripple’s current African partnerships utilise ODL. Trident Digital is constructing a $500 million corporate XRP treasury to provide liquidity for these African corridors, with a phased rollout targeting mid-2026, which could incentivise a shift from RLUSD to ODL.
Regulatory clarity is also viewed as essential for institutional adoption. The US Senate Banking Committee advanced the CLARITY Act with a 15-9 bipartisan vote on 14 May 2026, aiming to explicitly classify XRP as a commodity. Without such federal statute, many US-based pension funds and insurance companies remain hesitant to hold XRP at scale. Until the CLARITY Act is passed and ODL liquidity scales into high-volume corridors, Ripple’s banking deals will likely continue to benefit the company’s infrastructure while remaining neutral for the token’s market performance.
