XRP’s Hidden Road Deal Ignites Utility Boom – $2.08 Price Target in Sight

XRP just got a turbocharge. The Ripple-backed asset's latest partnership with Hidden Road—a institutional crypto credit network—sends utility metrics screaming north while traders eye a $2.08 price horizon.

Why this matters

Forget 'flippening' fantasies—real adoption is here. Hidden Road's clientele of hedge funds and market makers now tap XRP for cross-border settlements, slicing through SWIFT's bureaucratic quicksand. Liquidity pools deepen; institutional FOMO builds.

The cynical take

Wall Street's suddenly interested? Must be quarter-end portfolio dressing. But even skeptics can't ignore the on-chain data: transaction volume up 300% since Q1, with ODL corridors humming. This isn't your 2017 vaporware rally.

Bottom line

At $0.55, XRP was the 'loser coin' of 2023. Today? A dark horse galloping toward that $2.08 technical target—fueled by something rare in crypto: actual use cases. Watch the shorts get squeezed.

• XRP Ledger integrates AMMs, stablecoins, and institutional tools into one unified system.
• Ripple’s $1.25B Hidden Road acquisition brings real-time settlement to traditional finance.
• XRP price eyes breakout above $2.08; next targets include $2.30 and $2.65 zones.

In Max Avery’s recent podcast, the spotlight turned to XRP’s evolving role in the future of global finance. He emphasized how XRP Ledger (XRPL) has become more than just a payment rail, it’s now a full institutional-grade ecosystem.

Ever since its automated market Maker (AMM) debut on March 22, 2024, it skipped a technological step by including the AMM within its protocol and not relying on external smart contracts like Ethereum. Its inherent architecture thus endowed it with superior security, almost-zero fees, and smoother interfacing with its classical central limit order book.

It is unique for its inherent cross-border rails: cross-border rails are used by banks in the form of a bridge asset, Nostro/Vostro accounts are not used, and auto-bridging takes the least expensive, fastest path between currencies. Ripple acquired Hidden Road in April 2025 for $1.25 billion, adding its institutional risk, clearing, and its RLUSD stablecoin to facilitate instant, low-capital fund transfers.

Layered XRPL Ecosystem Fuels Compliant DeFi

With over 600 trillion dollars passing annually through the derivatives market, XRPL’s real-time settlement opportunity can be a game-changer. RLUSD enables cross-margining, i.e., transferring funds between crypto and classic trades in seconds rather than days.

Its network can host cross-border stablecoins like USDC, Schuman Financial’s euro coin, and Brazil’s USDB by means of auto-bridging, which burns very small amounts of the token, causing deflationary tension.

Its layered ecosystem features the foundation, an AMM layer, institutional support, regulated stablecoins, and ethereum compatibility. This architecture covers DeFi compliance through privacy-focused tools and zero-knowledge proofs, and Southeast Asian banks are testing it.

Cross-chain projects like Axelar and Flare connect XRPL to 70+ chains, adding utility and liquidity. Ripple calculates $1.5B of AMM liquidity would be sufficient for 90% of on-demand needs, perhaps an achievable goal at the current rate.

$1.90 Level Emerges as Pivotal Support

While Ripple continues tomake great progress on the institutional front, the market price of XRP continues to be in a stalemate. As it stands, the price of the coin is at $1.99, a 10% decline for the past week. Traders are watching the $2.08 area closely, which is currently a major resistance zone.

EGRAG CRYPTO emphasized last week the level of its higher breakout pattern. In a successful retest of the lower support “Box,” XRP needs to close above $2.08 within a 12-hour time frame to validate improved bullish momentum. If the asset fails to sustain that breakout, retesting the range bottom around $1.90 is possible, increasing the chances of short-term selling pressure.

Nonetheless, bullish momentum could very quickly accrue if XRP can manage to break through the narrow range of resistance at $2.30 to $2.33. A continued breakout through that could foster macro-level goals around $2.65, where a significant upside movement is believed by numerous traders to commence.

With rising institutional investment, sound technical bases, and increasing liquidity, the token is increasingly becoming not just a payment currency but also a pillar of world finance.

Related Reading | Ripple’s XRPL Now Hosts Tokenized U.S. Treasuries in $670M Finance Milestone