Following the launch of seven spot XRP ETFs in the U.S. in November 2025, Japan's Rakuten began integrating XRP payments for its 44 million users on April 15, 2026.
XRP's status as a global payment network is expanding rapidly. [Image = Korea Business Review DB]
In April 2026, XRP (Ripple) is once again emerging as a central topic in the cryptocurrency market. It temporarily broke the $1.50 mark on April 17, and after undergoing a minor correction, it is trading around $1.44 as of April 22–23.
What demands attention more than the price movement itself is the background. This is because three structural changes are converging simultaneously: the complete conclusion of the five-year U.S. SEC lawsuit, the simultaneous launch of seven spot ETFs in November 2025, and the integration of XRP payments by Japan's Rakuten for its 44 million users on April 15. However, the speed at which these variables will actually reflect on prices and on-chain metrics remains an open question, and this trend must be read on the premise that XRP is a highly volatile asset.
Five-Year Lawsuit Fully Concluded in August 2025 — What Exactly Happened
The starting point for understanding XRP is the SEC lawsuit. In December 2020, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple Labs, claiming that XRP was an unregistered security. Due to this lawsuit, XRP was delisted or had trading restricted on numerous exchanges, and institutional investors exited the XRP market for an extended period.
The legal conclusion unfolded as follows. In July 2023, Judge Analisa Torres issued a split ruling that XRP sales to retail investors through exchanges were not securities, but direct sales to institutional investors violated securities laws.
Both sides appealed, but on August 22, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit granted a joint motion by the SEC and Ripple to dismiss the appeal, completely ending the appellate process. Ripple agreed to pay a civil penalty of $125 million, which is significantly lower than the $2.0 billion originally demanded by the SEC.
The core of this ruling is that Judge Torres's 2023 judgment—that secondary market trading of XRP through exchanges does not constitute securities—was definitively upheld as is.
With this, the ruling has established a precedent regarding future cryptocurrency classifications. Following the conclusion of the lawsuit, major U.S. exchanges began relisting XRP, laying the legal foundation for spot ETF approvals.
Seven Spot ETFs Launched in November 2025 — Current Status of Institutional Capital Inflows
Spot XRP ETFs are products that have already been launched. Seven spot XRP ETFs were approved and launched in the U.S. market in November 2025.
The first launch was Canary Capital (XRPC) on November 13, 2025, with the remaining six rolling out successively within days. Tickers include XRPZ (Franklin Templeton), XRP (Bitwise), XRPC (Canary), GXRP (Grayscale), TOXR (21Shares), and XRPR (Rex-Osprey), and they are traded on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq.
Competition over expense ratios is also fierce. The Franklin Templeton XRP ETF (XRPZ) applies an annual expense ratio of 0.19% and is running a promotion waiving fees entirely until May 31, 2026. Grayscale's GXRP has an expense ratio of 0.35% with its waiver period ending on February 24, 2026, while Rex-Osprey charges 0.75%, the highest among the seven.
Regarding the scale of capital inflows, total assets under management (AUM) for XRP ETFs in the U.S. are currently known to be around $1.0 billion, and according to CoinShares data, net inflows related to XRP for the week ending April 11 recorded $119.6 million. However, evaluations also point out that the price appreciation effect following the ETF launches has been more limited than initial market expectations.
Rakuten Integrates XRP Payments Starting April 15 — Examining Scale and Limitations Together
The most notable real-world adoption issue this month is Rakuten's integration of XRP.
Starting April 15, 2026, Rakuten Wallet integrated XRP into the Rakuten Pay app. Users can purchase XRP using Rakuten points and convert them into Rakuten Cash to use for payments at over 5 million merchant locations across Japan. Rakuten points in circulation are estimated to exceed 3 trillion points, worth approximately $23 billion.
However, it is necessary to accurately understand the nature of this integration. Merchants receive payments in Japanese yen. In other words, when a user pays with XRP, a conversion to yen takes place on the back end, meaning merchants do not directly hold or have exposure to XRP. This does not mean that 44 million people are directly buying and holding XRP; rather, it is a structure that utilizes XRP infrastructure through a point conversion pathway.
Tatsuya Koroki, Senior Ecosystem Manager at Ripple, evaluated this integration as "one of the most important milestones in the history of XRP." The actual scale of user adoption remains a task to be verified through transaction data over the coming months.
CLARITY Bill Deliberations — Distinguishing Established Facts from Uncertain Prospects
In the U.S. Congress, the CLARITY Act, which regulates digital asset market structure, is awaiting Senate review after passing the House of Representatives.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has expressed expectations in multiple interviews regarding the possibility of the bill passing within the year.
Some in the market view that if the bill passes, regulatory uncertainty surrounding major digital assets including XRP could diminish. However, the Senate review schedule is fluid depending on political calendars, and whether it will be handled within the year is currently unconfirmed.
Risk Factors — Why Structure Must Be Examined Over Numbers
Entering 2026, XRP is trading at levels down more than 60% compared to its 2025 peak of $3.65.
High oil prices and geopolitical tensions are acting as new downward pressures, and analyses suggest that favorable factors such as ETF launches and the conclusion of the lawsuit have already been largely priced in. Price forecasts vary widely among institutions.
Standard Chartered analysts have presented an $8 scenario for 2026, whereas other research institutions have presented conservative paths in the $2 to $3 range, creating a very wide scope of forecasts. Many analysts point to the expansion of actual institutional adoption and improvements in on-chain trading volume metrics, rather than regulatory events, as the core variables for future XRP prices.
Conclusion — Structure Has Changed, Speed Is Still Unknown
The reasons to pay attention to XRP at the end of April are clear.
Legal uncertainty has been resolved with the complete conclusion of the five-year lawsuit, seven spot ETFs are already trading in the market, and Rakuten, Japan's largest consumer platform, has directly incorporated XRP into its payment infrastructure.
These three are confirmed facts, not forecasts. The question is speed. How rapidly these structural changes will translate into on-chain metrics and actual user behavior will be told by data over the coming months.
XRP remains a high-volatility asset, and investment decisions should be made by considering these structural facts alongside individual risk tolerance.
※ This article does not recommend investment in any specific asset. Cryptocurrencies are high-risk assets with the possibility of principal loss.