Ripple Labs $300 Million Venture Goes Live in South Korea, Unlocks XRP Opportunities for Investors

ZCash (ZEC), a privacy-centric cryptocurrency — an altcoin with obfuscated transactional data — is the best performer of this week amid the top 100 biggest cryptos. At the same time, it is highly unlikely that the privacy coin rally will return in 2025.

ZCash (ZEC) up by 28% in seven days, other privacy coins lagging

In the last seven days, ZCash (ZEC), a large-cap privacy coin, added almost 28% in price. Earlier today, it hit $368, which is the highest price level since Nov. 29. Meme cryptocurrency MemeCore (M), its closest rival, is only up by 23%.CoinGecko">

In the last 24 hours, by contrast, ZCash (ZEC) performed weaker compared to the rest of the market. While the crypto segment benchmark is down by 2.7%, ZEC's price lost 5.6% on surging trading volume.

At the same time, competitive privacy coins Dash (DASH), Decred (DCR), MimbleWimbleCoin (MWC), Verge (XVG) are all in the red.

As covered by U.Today previously, ZCash (ZEC) was the central coin of the Q4, 2025 privacy coins euphoria. In just three months between mid-August and mid-November, ZEC's price surged by 20x.

The local peak — $705 per ZEC coin on Nov. 17 — is the highest price for ZCash (ZEC) in almost seven years. The absolute ZCash (ZEC) price ATH was registered over $3,191 in October 2016.

Monero (XMR) dethrones ZCash (ZEC) and becomes biggest privacy coin again

Such an impressive run was catalyzed by institutional interest in ZEC. Backed by Winklevoss twins, Leap Therapeutics rebranded to Cypherpunk Technologies and became the first ever ZEC digital asset treasury company.

Also, investing heavyweight Grayscale filed for the first exchange-traded fund in the U.S. backed by spot ZCash (ZEC) holdings.

ZCash (ZEC) even replaced Monero (XMR) as the largest privacy coin. However, this week, Monero's (XMR) market cap hit $7.6 billion, while ZCash (ZEC) dropped to $7.2 billion. Monero (XMR) and ZCash (ZEC) are the 26th and 26th biggest cryptocurrencies, respectively.

The Bitcoin market is experiencing a gradual trend reversal following weeks of prolonged price correction between October and November. However, recent on-chain data reveals a concerning trend around BTC’s bullish structure.

Bitcoin IFP Indicator Suggests Market Has Reached Turning Point 

Popular analytics page Arab Chain has shared a cautionary insight on the Bitcoin market despite the moderate price recovery in recent weeks. After Bitcoin suffered a 36.5% correction from its all-time high at $126,000, the market leader has lately experienced a significant rebound, rising from $80,000 to as high as $94,000 in the past three weeks. 

However, data from the Bitcoin Inter-Exchange Flow Pulse (IFP) suggests the upward price momentum might be short-lived. For perspective, the Bitcoin IFP measures the net movement of Bitcoin between exchanges over a given period. Arab Chain explains the IFP indicator continues to trend downward, after breaking below its 90-day moving average (MA), suggesting a weakening market participation amid fewer “bullish” flows between exchanges.

Furthermore, the IFP also sits in the red zone, which historically coincides with or precedes a correction period or weak structural momentum that could precede a broader downtrend. Combined, these developments imply the Bitcoin market is at a critical junction, as there is a reduction in exchange flows that has historically supported the price rallies in past market phases.

Is The Bullish Run Over?

Amidst the structural weakness highlighted by the IFP indicator, Arab Chain also noted that the price remains relatively high compared to previous levels in similar situations. The analysts explain that this suggests price and inflows are temporarily moving irrespective of each other. Based on historical data, such detachments usually indicate a prolonged price consolidation or a significant period of extended sideways movement until inter-exchange flows can reestablish market dominance. 

Therefore, the Bitcoin bullish structure is not collapsing into a bearish state. However, the IFP metric developments suggest there may not be sustained upward movement in the short term due to the structural slowdown in inter-exchange flows. Moreover, price is likely to become sensitive to changes in the market liquidity. Therefore, there is also significant potential for another correction.

At press time, Bitcoin trades at $90,338, reflecting a 1.82% decline in the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, daily trading volume is up by 34.64% and valued at $82.68 billion. According to Arab Chain, a continuous price rebound will only occur if the IFP successfully reclaims its 90-day MA, thereby signaling an increase in bullish exchange flows.

Although Solana has been on a downward trajectory, investors betting on the asset via Solana Funds have maintained resilience as the spot Solana ETFs have maintained a steady inflow streak for seven consecutive days.

According to data provided by Farside Investors, the Solana ETFs have maintained positive daily flows in recent sessions across the broad Solana ETF ecosystem.

While it appears that investors are pouring in less capital compared to the previous month, the funds have experienced steady but low daily performance, extending a seven-day inflow streak that has renewed momentum for the sector.

Solana ETFs near $700 million in inflows

The data further shows that the Solana ETFs have recorded nearly $700 million in cumulative flows since their emergence a few months ago.

This signals sustained institutional interest in the Solana ecosystem despite the unstable market conditions fueling high volatility across crypto markets.

This rapid growth is not a surprise as the ETFs have been seeing strong demand since the launch of the first Solana ETF. Per the data, the strongest single-day inflows were recorded shortly after launch.

Thereafter, daily inflows have moderated since then, highlighting growing confidence among investors seeking regulated exposure to Solana.

While Bitwise has continued to dominate the sector, the huge growth in the overall inflows is all thanks to the strong contributions from Bitwise’s BSOL and Grayscale’s GSOL ETFs.

With the largest portion of the cumulative inflows coming from Bitwise, the fund had led the pack with $608.9 million in total inflows. This rapid growth witnessed by the Solana ETFs is largely attributed to its early traction and consistent demand since launch.

Furthermore, the Grayscale Solana ETF follows with $97.8 million, while Franklin’s Solana ETD has attracted $54.8 million over the same period.

Nonetheless, it is important to note that all listed Solana ETFs currently offer staking exposure, a feature that continues to differentiate them from many traditional crypto investment products.

In a recent tweet, Ripple CTO David Schwartz shares a hilarious moment with Chris Larsen, Ripple chairman and co-founder, at an event, describing it as perhaps the funniest thing that has ever happened in his time at Ripple.

December continues to be a busy month for Ripple, having made key appearances at major crypto events, including Binance Blockchain Week, which was held in Dubai from Dec. 3 to 4. Ripple also participated in Fintech Abu Dhabi event, which was held from Dec. 8 to 11.

Ripple also indicated its participation at the Blockchain for Europe Summit at Brussels, Belgium, held Dec. 2 to 3, and Ripple Christmas Breakfast in London, U.K., on Dec. 11.

In one of such events, which had himself, Chris Larsen, employees of Ripple and its recent acquisitions in attendance, Ripple CTO David Schwartz recalls an awkward moment when a new employee from one of its recent acquisitions walked up to Larsen and asked, "So..What do you do at Ripple?"

Obviously taken aback by the question, Schwartz said he was "kind of busy laughing inside" describing the moment as being funny.

In response to an X user's question on what the Ripple chairman answered, Schwartz said, "But I think it went something like: Um. Well. I guess, I'm sort of the founder."

2025 was a watershed year for Ripple in its operations as it made four major acquisitions: GTreasury, Rail, Palisade and Hidden Road. Ripple has invested nearly $4 billion into the crypto ecosystem through strategic investments and acquisitions.

December turns out big for Ripple

On Dec. 11, Ripple revealed that it had completed the acquisition of Rail, with the potential of making Ripple Payments, the market's most comprehensive end-to-end stablecoin solution.

Earlier in December, Ripple announced it had closed a $1 billion acquisition of GTreasury, which marks a significant expansion into the multi-trillion-dollar corporate finance arena, a market many predict will lead the next phase of digital asset adoption.

In huge news for Ripple, according to CEO Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple has received conditional approval from the OCC to charter Ripple National Trust Bank. This is a massive step forward — first for the Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin, setting the highest standard for stablecoin compliance with both federal (OCC) and state (NYDFS) oversight.

The LINK price remains capped and under bearish pressure despite there being strong signs of sustained accumulation and a growing narrative that positions Chainlink as foundational infrastructure for on-chain finance. While exchange balances continue to fall and enterprise adoption accelerates, LINK price USD action suggests the market is still struggling with short-term demand constraints, and LINK ETF’s declining inflows kind of proves that.

LINK Crypto’s Infrastructure Narrative Continues to Expand

Fundamentally speaking, Chainlink crypto is a very strong asset and can be viewed as one of the top blue-chip projects in the industry. As it is increasingly viewed as the backbone of on-chain finance, similar to how Microsoft’s operating systems ruled early enterprise computing. 

By setting data, interoperability, and security standards, Chainlink is kind of enabling financial institutions to transition from traditional digital systems toward onchain infrastructure.

This project’s efforts demonstrate that global finance is gradually migrating onto the blockchain. If that shift accelerates, Chainlink’s role will be supreme, similar to what Nvidia, Microsoft, and even Apple have, which’s a standardized middleware layer that could become indispensable. This factor alone is reinforcing long-term utility beyond speculative cycles.

Exchange Balances Signal Silent Accumulation

Not just verbally, it’s growing; even on-chain data shows a notable decline in LINK exchange balances, which suggests that accumulation is happening. On October 13, exchanges held approximately 167 million LINK tokens, a figure that has since dropped like a falling knife to 127.8 million LINK. 

The XRP price has been on a steep downward spiral throughout the second half of 2025, falling from its all-time high of around $3.65. However, finding support at the $2 mark has been a consistent theme during the altcoin’s period of decline.

Most recently, the XRP price fell this week from its local high close to $2.20 before bouncing back from the $2 mark. While the coin’s value continues to hover around this psychological price point, below is a look at other relevant levels that could determine its future trajectory.

Key On-Chain Levels For XRP

In a December 12 post on social media platform X, crypto analyst Ali Martinez shared on-chain insights into the current market outlook for the XRP token. Using Glassnode’s Cost Basis Distribution Heatmap, the market pundit identified three key levels for the XRP price.

The Cost Basis Distribution Heatmap tracks the average cost basis of the total XRP token supply. With the help of a heatmap, this metric highlights different price levels and the density of investors who purchased their tokens within and around these price levels.

The deep red shade on the heatmap indicates an investor cluster with their cost basis around the highlighted price regions. These zones often act as dynamic support and resistance, depending on whether the current XRP price is below or above them.

Martinez highlighted that the $1.96 and 1.78 zones are the next support cushions for the price of XRP. As seen with recent rebounds around the $1.96 level, the altcoin will likely also bounce back (if it loses the current immediate support) at $1.78, as investors tend to double down and defend their positions by buying more when the price returns to their cost basis, thereby keeping the token’s price afloat.

Meanwhile, Martinez noted that the $2.17 level is a resistance zone for the XRP price, as several investors with their cost basis around it are likely to sell when the price returns to this zone. This selling activity, in turn, puts downward pressure on the altcoin and prevents its price from breaking out.

Ultimately, this on-chain observation reveals that the XRP price needs to at least break the resistance at $2.17 to kickstart any fresh upward trajectory. On the flip side, a loss of the $1.96 support could see the fourth-largest cryptocurrency fall to as low as $1.78.

XRP Price At A Glance

As of this writing, the price of XRP stands at around $2.01, reflecting no significant change in the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, the altcoin is down by nearly 2% on the weekly timeframe, according to CoinGecko’s data.