Standard Chartered Deploys XRPL Custody as BTC Bounces

BitcoinBTC-0.20% Bounces Back to $83,300 After Weekend Dip

The crypto market kicked off the week with a clear rebound. After dropping down toward $81,000 on Friday, Bitcoin climbed back up to around $83,340. This recovery pushed total crypto market capitalization into the $2.82 to $2.90 trillion range.

The sudden price jump forced many traders betting against the market to close their positions. Total exchange liquidations hit $229.43 million in 24 hours, with short sellers accounting for over 65% ($149.84 million) of those forced sales. As always with digital assets, rapid price swings can work both ways, so short-term volatility remains an important factor to watch.

Meanwhile, large buyers continue accumulating. Strategy added another 250 Bitcoins to its balance sheet, bringing its total treasury holdings to 848,250 coins. On-chain data shows that over the past 12 months, investors moved more than 710,000 Bitcoins (worth roughly $59.5 billion) off centralized exchanges into private cold storage wallets.

Past performance of digital assets or historical operations does not guarantee future results or performance.

Standard Chartered and Evernorth Push XRP Ecosystem Forward

The biggest institutional news came from Standard Chartered. The banking giant launched a custody service for the RippleXRP-0.34% USDRLUSD-0.12% stablecoin on the XRP Ledger network through its Dubai branch, working alongside LMAX Group.

By using a collateral mirroring model, institutional traders can use RLUSD for margin trading without sending funds directly onto an exchange. This cuts out international transfer friction and builds on a partnership between Standard Chartered and Ripple that started back in 2015 when the bank invested $55 million in Ripple's Series B round.

The real-world asset (RWA) sector on the XRP Ledger is growing alongside these developments:

• Total represented assets on XRPL have reached $4.47 billion.
• RWA trading volume stands at $496.45 million.
• Stablecoin market capitalization on the network is now $1.18 billion.
• 30-day tokenized asset transfer volume jumped 1,456.8% to $7.03 billion.
• The largest asset is the OndoONDO+4.14% Short-Term US Government Bond Fund at $185.11 million.

In tandem, treasury fund Evernorth made its debut on Nasdaq under the ticker XRPN following a SPAC merger with Armada. The firm holds 473 million XRP (worth about $672 million) and $300 million in cash. Led by new Chief Investment Officer Hugo Zhandeboz, former co-CIO of Coinbase Asset Management, Evernorth plans to deploy its reserves into credit derivatives and DeFi liquidity pools to boost yields.

On the technical front, RippleX and the XRP Ledger Foundation fixed a legacy 64-bit number overflow bug in the payment engine that had existed since 2015. Discovered by Veria AI, the issue was patched in rippled version 3.4.1 before anyone exploited it on the live network. XRP traded steadily around $1.3980 following the update.

EthereumETH+1.33% Moves, Regulatory Checks, and AI Shifts

Ethereum also saw notable activity as wallets linked to the Ethereum Foundation transferred 4,393 ETH (about $11.13 million) to the Kraken exchange. These original genesis wallets have gradually transferred 49,751 ETH to Kraken over the years at a historical average price of $658. ETH traded near $2,544, holding above its $2,500 support level.

In regulatory news, the US Department of Justice is checking Binance to confirm compliance with its 2023 $4.3 billion settlement agreement, specifically examining Hong Kong entities for any potential sanctions issues. No new charges have been filed, and Binance stated it remains fully compliant with global rules.

Elsewhere in the market, Dutch firm SWI Group raised €800 million at a €6.1 billion valuation to convert data centers previously used by Bitcoin miner Genesis Digital Assets into AI computing facilities. SWI CEO Max-Hervé George confirmed the group is completely stepping away from crypto mining to focus on AI workloads.

Key Economic Events to Watch This Week

With Bitcoin market dominance sitting at roughly 59.38%, major digital assets are consolidating as traders wait for key macroeconomic data out of the United States. Future market movements could depend heavily on how these economic metrics unfold:

• Oct 12–17: Annual IMF and World Bank meetings in Washington.
• Wednesday, Oct 14: US Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for September and the Fed's Beige Book.
• Thursday, Oct 15: US Producer Price Index (PPI) and weekly jobless claims data.
• Friday, Oct 16: Speech by Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh.

If inflation numbers come in cooler than expected, risk assets like Bitcoin could see renewed upward momentum. Conversely, higher inflation print signals might pressure prices downward, reminding investors to maintain balanced risk expectations across their portfolios.