Important Ripple News and XRP Price Update: August 19

Although the past week was quite unpleasant for XRP token holders in terms of price action, the company behind the asset made a few significant moves.

Additionally, there’s more information on the XRP whale activity, which has shown a clear uptick. We will review all of that and much more, so let’s dive in.

Big Partnership

We kick things off with a fresh announcement from yesterday, which stated that Ripple collaborated with Jeonbuk Bank to begin the first deployment of Ripple Payments in South Korea to enable faster cross-border remittances.

The partnership aims to expedite international transfers for businesses and reduce delays associated with traditional banking methods.

“With this partnership with Ripple, JB Jeonbuk Bank is ready to move beyond its role as a regional bank and emerge as a digital finance leader that meets global standards. This partnership will become a new growth engine for the bank, and we will lead innovation that reshapes the financial paradigm, going beyond the adoption of new technology,” commented Jeonbuk Bank’s President, Park Choon-won.

The company’s recent activities in South Korea include another collaboration with Kyobo Life Insurance and KBank to enhance digital finance and blockchain integration.

Ripple Price Raises $275M

Another statement from yesterday said the company had secured a $275 million private placement of senior unsecured notes issued by Ripple Prime to support its ongoing and expanding business in the US. According to the team, a “diverse base of institutional investors in key financial markets” participated in the fundraiser.

Ripple Prime will use the proceeds for working capital and general corporate purposes within a regulated entity as client demand for a modern, multi-asset clearing, prime brokerage, and financial services platform rises.

Wall Street and XRP ETFs

The most recent SEC filings in the US showed that a growing number of Wall Street behemoths have gained exposure to XRP through the spot exchange-traded funds. Jane Street Group leads the pack with more than 1.2 million shares.

Other notable names that disclosed such exposure included Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Wolverine Asset Management, Gallagher Capital Management, Main Street Group, and National Bank of Canada.

Meanwhile, the XRP ETFs ended the previous business week in the green again, but attracted a very modest amount of just over $2 million. On the plus side, net inflows reached $5.81 million on August 19, the highest for the month.

XRP Price Update

Ripple’s partnership, expansion news, or any other recent initiatives have failed to boost the underlying asset. Just the opposite, XRP has been consistently losing value, which eventually led to the almost inevitable dip below $1.00 for the first time in nearly two years. As of press time, the asset has been unable to reclaim that level decisively despite BTC’s resurgence to over $64,000.

On the flip side, the network activity has picked up the pace lately. Daily active addresses topped 35,500 in August, while the number of whales holding at least a million XRP increased by 32 in three months. In addition, these large market participants went on an impressive accumulation spree last week, scooping 72 million tokens in 24 hours.

Meanwhile, analysts continue with contradictory predictions about the asset’s future price performance. Some claimed that the dip below $1.00 could get a lot worse before the token rebounds, while others are adamant that it could bounce off the recent levels.