XRP Marks 16 Days of Unbroken ETF Inflows With New Record Set: Details

Gemini, a U.S. crypto exchange, posted a short line about "eXploRing fast settlement" and "limitless," and the capital letters — X, R, P and L — were enough to get the XRP community talking again, not because the post had any news, but because it was clearly a hint that came in the middle of a week already filled with small XRPL-related signals from well-known players.

Last month, Mastercard, Gemini, Ripple and WebBank tested settling card payments with RLUSD on XRPL, which stood out because it used a public blockchain for regular card flows. 

RLUSD has since climbed past $1 billion in value, Ripple raised $500 million at a $40 billion valuation and these steps made people pay closer attention to anything that might hint at a follow-up or a wider rollout — even if the messaging remains laconic and playful.

The atmosphere around XRP was really lively over the past two days, with Solana adding its own spark. First it posted "589," a number linked to old XRP memes from "The Simpsons," and then it tagged Ripple CTO David Schwartz in a separate teaser.

What's brewing for XRP?

Neither move confirmed anything, yet both pulled in heavy engagement and pushed XRP conversations onto Solana timelines at the exact moment cross-chain settlement topics through Axelar were heating up again.

Gemini's line does not confirm any integration or expansion, and the exchange has not suggested that something is coming. But when a bunch of big platforms drop hints about XRP in quick succession — Solana's memes, Mastercard's test run and now Gemini's rebus — the market reads these as early signs of an update in the works.

The past month has seen Ethereum show mixed price action amid multiple series of deep price corrections. However, whales have continued to scoop up the asset in large quantities despite uncertain market conditions.

On Wednesday, Dec. 10, popular crypto analyst Ali Martinez had showcased data revealing the aggressive accumulation of more than 800,000 ETH in the last 30 days.

The analyst revealed this, showing charts from crypto analytics firm Santiment that show that Ethereum wallets holding between 10,000 ETH and 100,000 ETH had bought over $2.4 billion worth of Ethereum at an average trading price of $3,105. This signals a notable shift in sentiment, as large Ethereum holders appear to have been preparing for a major price shift.

Ethereum regains momentum amid notable price resurgence 

While the price of Ethereum had struggled through a period of downward pressure and volatility amid the broad crypto market downtrend witnessed in previous months, whale holdings appear to have steadily climbed.

This resilience portrayed by whales during such accumulation phases signals confidence among high-profile and institutional investors. Historically, moves like this have often preceded significant price movements.

Amid prolonged market volatility, ETH prices have hovered around low levels, even dipping as low as $2,600 in the past month. However, whale activity suggests that large investors appear to have massively bought the dip, positioning themselves for what they believe could be an upcoming catalyst.

As they have expected, the crypto market is now seeing a broad resurgence, with the prices of leading cryptocurrencies showing notable daily gains.

Amid this resurgence, Ethereum has reclaimed its long-lost $3,300 level, surging by over 7% over the last day. Notably, data from CoinMarketCap shows that Ethereum is trading at $3,321 as of press time.CoinMarketCap ">

The Ethereum price resurgence is not entirely a surprise as market watchers have noted that similar accumulation patterns in the past have been followed by strong upside momentum. 

While the spot Ethereum ETFs had also slowed down in its daily performance over the period, they are beginning to note increasing inflows as momentum returns to the market.

Cascade, a DeFi startup that recently closed a $15 million seed round led by Polychain and Variant, began rolling out its “neo-brokerage.” The decentralized platform plans to support 24/7 perpetual trading (perps) markets for everything from real-world commodities to crypto, including tokenized versions of pre-IPO equities like OpenAI, SpaceX, and Stripe.

The protocol, reportedly under development for over two years, was unveiled at a time of accelerated growth for perps DEXs. Cumulatively, perps DEXs like Hyperliquid, Aster, Lighter and other platforms saw a record $1.2 trillion in monthly trading volume in October and a nearly equivalent amount in November.

At the same time, more crypto exchanges are looking to support varied asset classes. Onchain platforms like Ostium are offering synthetic perpetuals trading in gold and pork belly futures, while centralized venues like Kraken have enabled actual commodities markets by tapping the CME.

Then there are brokerages like Robinhood, which are looking to become omni-asset brokerages where users can bet on everything from traditional and tokenized stocks, to FX and digital currencies, fixed-income instruments and bonds, commodities, and prediction markets. 

Cascade is iterating on this model, but on its own terms, co-founder Kevin told The Block in an interview. Yes, it too is looking to provide a one-stop spot where users can own equities, trade crypto, borrow against their portfolios, and access synthetic exposure in a single account, but it also wants to feel as native as web2. 

“Everything previously in the perps space has been very web3 focused, right?” Kevin said. “For us, we want to focus on providing a CEX-level experience that can onboard regular users.”

To that extent, Cascade has worked to onboard Stripe’s Bridge to power its “complete brokerage experience,” enabling users to on- and off-board in fiat by directly connecting their bank accounts. 

“You can literally give people a Coinbase-level, CEX-level experience where they come in, sign in with Privy, Gmail, whatever, and deposit through fiat to get access to all the markets,” Kevin said. “The Bridge integration is the crucial part for us. We've obviously been working on the integration for a few months now and the experience is pretty seamless.”

Expanding coverage

On Tuesday, Cascade opened its vaults to build up its pre-launch deposits and begin the invite and onboarding process. The team hopes to launch its mainnet in Q1 2026. The platform will open with about 10 perpetual markets and will expand coverage over time, beginning with permissioned deployment of popular markets based on demand, similar to Ostium.

“We have different kind of oracle pricing for each market,” Kevin said. The documentation notes it will use authenticated feeds from Stork for real-time prices. Likewise, liquidations will be tied to oracle prices, with Auto-Deleveraging (ADL) mechanisms that close positions if they fall behind their margin requirements.

Crucially, Cascade also aims to support 24/7 trading across all asset classes. Kevin noted these markets are structured like “traditional perps contracts,” with no direct connection to the underlying asset. 

According to the documentation, a non-custodial matcher will handle price discovery and order matching off-chain, enabling sub-second execution speeds, while an onchain perps contract acts as an enforcer to settle trades.

Although the protocol is just now ramping up to launch, Kevin hinted at a future where Cascade becomes a unified trading and banking account, where users can take their profits to fund their everyday purchases. 

“We're going to be like a card issuer down the line as well,” Kevin said. “You can literally just spend the funds in your trading balance, so you're not segregating this web3 and web2 experience — you can tie everything together.”

Cascade announced its seed round in early December with support from Polychain Capital, Variant, Coinbase Ventures, Archetype, and others.

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