Ripple is making progress in its long-drawn legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, with plans for a $50 million settlement. A joint filing made the headlines following several updates on firms planning to raise funds to purchase XRP and hold it as a treasury asset. Experts examine whether it is a “pump and dump” tactic to exploit sidelined traders or whether XRP could rally toward a new high in 2025.
XRP price forecast
The XRP weekly price chart shows that the long-term outlook on the native token of the XRPLedger is mixed. While technical indicators suggest a likelihood of further consolidation, catalysts, and bullish developments surrounding Ripple, the XRPLedger and its stablecoin could fuel a bullish sentiment among traders and drive prices higher.
The RSI reads 50, at the neutral level and MACD flashes red histogram bars under the neutral line, meaning there is an underlying negative momentum in XRP price trend.
The altcoin faces resistance at a local peak of $2.6549 and could test liquidity at the $2 support, a key psychological level for XRP.
XRP could rally 25% if it ends the consolidation and confirms an upward trend, testing resistance at $2.6549.
The daily price chart shows that XRP is in a short-term downward trend and consolidates under the $2.6549 resistance. RSI reads 40, far under the neutral level, while MACD flashes its first red histogram bar after a series of green histogram bars in the past week.
To test the $7 target, XRP would have to enter price discovery and climb towards the 272.2% Fibonacci retracement of the rally from the $0.3823 low to the $3.40 peak. This is possible if the XRP price maintains a sustained upward trend and bullish momentum for the next few weeks, irrespective of volatility in altcoins and Bitcoin flash crashes.
XRP derivatives analysis
Derivatives data from Coinglass, a crypto intelligence platform, shows a decline in Open Interest (OI), or the total value of all open contracts in XRP across derivatives exchanges. However, there has been a massive increase in derivatives trade volume and options volume in the last 24 hours.
The long/short ratio exceeds 2 on Binance and OKX, meaning there are more long bets than short bets, and derivatives traders expect a rally in XRP.
However, over $20 million in long positions have been liquidated in XRP, while less than $2 million in shorts were liquidated, meaning the market is punishing bulls.
Ripple makes progress in SEC lawsuit, other catalysts
A recent filing in the SEC v. Ripple lawsuit shows that the two parties have jointly agreed to a $50 million settlement to be paid to the securities regulator. This could draw the long legal battle to an end and support a bullish thesis for XRPLedger and XRP adoption.
Two other key catalysts include Trump-appointed CFTC Chair Chris Giancarlo’s idea of issuing government bonds for crypto assets like Bitcoin and XRP. The CFTC Chair believes that it is likely and shared his insights during a discussion at the XRPL Apex 2025 event in Singapore.
With a large number of ideas being floated in the Trump administration about the US government’s acquisition and custody of cryptocurrencies, there is an interest in bonds backed by crypto.
The final catalyst is related to crypto banking itself: a bank charter that could allow payment remittance firms like Ripple to get banking licenses. At an XRP Las Vegas conference, Greg Kidd, co-founder of Haka Yaka Ventures and owner of Vast Bank, told FOX Business’ Eleanor Terett that “he is working on a bank charter that could allow firms like Ripple to get banking licenses.”
What to expect from Ripple in 2025
Developers at the XRPLedger, led by Ripple CTO David Schwartz announced at the Apex 2025 event that the chain has plans to launch an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) sidechain in Q2 2025.
The sidechain would allow Ethereum smart contracts to enter the XRPLedger ecosystem, and the parallel-running blockchain would integrate the low-cost transaction capabilities of XRP’s native blockchain with the DeFi ecosystem of apps.
The chain is currently being tested, ahead of the mainnet launch. Further testing and validator partnerships will most likely mark Q2 2025. A bridge will connect the side chain to XRP’s native blockchain, and a version of the altcoin, wrapped in XRP, will be the native gas token for the EVM side chain.
The news of the technical development is likely the single most important driver of utility and adoption to the Ledger and XRP. At the same time, Ripple makes strides through its stablecoin partnerships and boosts the Ledger’s ecosystem.
Err on the side of caution, Matthew Sigel warns XRP traders
Despite bullish developments and headlines shining the spotlight on firms that announced plans to buy and hold XRP as a treasury asset, VanEck’s Head of Digital Assets, Matthew Sigel is not convinced.
Sigel believes that the low-cap Nasdaq companies claiming they’ll buy hundreds of millions of dollars worth of altcoins like XRP could be “pump and dump” schemes. These schemes are meant to inflate prices and benefit from the liquidity, leaving retail traders in the lurch to pocket large-scale losses.
According to Sigel, VivoPower’s announcement, followed by Webus’s $300 million XRP reserve plan, could be temporary catalysts for XRP. Whether the low-market-cap firms raise the funds and purchase the tokens to hold in their treasuries remains to be seen.
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