2025 has been a historic year for Ripple and its native token XRP. The company secured key partnerships and made notable acquisitions, and the crypto community finally saw the conclusion of the Ripple/SEC legal battle, while the asset’s price was booming in the summer.

However, the past few months have not been kind to the market, and XRP’s valuation has headed south. Moreover, large investors (known as whales) have been selling their holdings en masse, signaling that the downtrend is nowhere near its end.

The Legal Saga and the Major Acquisitions

Ripple started the year rather quietly, initially standing aside from the spotlight. However, it all changed in March when the company’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, announced that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had dropped its appeal against the firm, triggering real euphoria across the XRP Army.

The legal battle had to pass through additional phases before being finally concluded in the summer. The final judgment required Ripple to pay a civil penalty of approximately $125 million for violating certain securities laws. The SEC initially sought about $2 billion in disgorgement and penalties, meaning the company was ordered to pay less than 7% of what the regulator insisted on.

That said, countless analysts and experts viewed the ruling as a major and decisive victory for Ripple. Some went even further, describing it as a pivotal moment in the industry and one that marks the pro-crypto shift at the SEC following the resignation of former Chairman Gary Gensler.

The company’s success this year spreads well beyond its court win against. In April, it disclosed the acquisition of the prime brokerage Hidden Road for $1.25 billion, which was seen as one of the largest deals ever in the crypto space. Several months later, the platform was renamed to Ripple Prime, and its goal is to provide services to institutional clients.

Besides that, the firm made other notable deals, including the purchase of Rail for $200 million and Palisade. In addition, it announced a $1 billion acquisition of treasury management system provider GTreasury.

There were also rumors that Ripple planned to spend more than $5 billion to purchase Circle, the company behind the stablecoin USDC. However, the latter reportedly rejected the offer.

Earlier this month, CEO Garlinghouse dropped another bombshell, saying the entity has received conditional approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to charter Ripple National Trust Bank. The excitement of the XRP community was more than evident, and some revealed that Bank of America has confirmed the move.

The ETFs and RLUSD’s Progress

Another major milestone occurred towards the end of the year. It was mid-November when Canary Capital introduced the first spot XRP ETF in the United States, which has 100% exposure to the token. The product had a very successful debut, and shortly after, Bitwise, Grayscale, Franklin Templeton, and 21Shares followed suit. According to SoSoValue, the investment vehicles have so far generated a cumulative total net inflow of around $1.14 billion.

2025 has also been beneficial for Ripple’s stablecoin. Launched in late 2024 under the ticker RLUSD and pegged to the American dollar, the financial product gained backing from numerous exchanges, banking giants, and well-known entities over the last several months.

In July, Ripple selected the oldest US bank, BNY Mellon, to serve as a custodian for RLUSD. Meanwhile, the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) recognized the stablecoin within the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC), whereas Abu Dhabi’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) classified it as an accepted fiat-referenced token.

RLUSD’s market capitalization recently surpassed $1.3 billion, making it the 12th-largest stablecoin and the 77th-largest cryptocurrency.

XRP’s Rise and Fall

Ripple’s native token started the year on the right foot, exceeding the $3 mark in January. While the following months were volatile and not as successful, the summer brought another major resurgence.

In July, XRP hit a new all-time high of around $3.65 amid a time when the broader crypto market was booming. The past months, though, have brought a painful correction. As of this writing, XRP trades at around $1.87 (per CoinGecko’s data), representing a 48% decline from the summer peak.

Certain factors, including the bearish market conditions and the recent selling spree by large investors, suggest the pullback may intensify in the near future. At one point towards the end of the year, whales offloaded roughly 1.4 billion tokens in less than a month. Later on, they dumped an additional 510 million tokens in the span of a single week, while around Christmas, they sold 40 million coins.

Those efforts signal reduced confidence in the asset, which could spread panic across the community and prompt smaller players to cash out, too. It also raises the question that the whales might know something we don’t, which could explain their selling en masse.

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