ZOOZ Expands Its Bitcoin Treasury to 1,036 Bitcoin Following Additional Purchase

The XRP community is buzzing with mixed feelings today, curiosity blended with caution, after Ripple’s Chief Technology Officer, David Schwartz, shed new light on the company’s massive XRP escrow holdings. While the token’s price remains stable, Schwartz’s remarks have reignited old debates about what counts as XRP’s actual circulating supply and how this could shape its long-term valuation.

Ripple’s Escrow Twist Raises New Questions

In a detailed X post, Schwartz, also known as “JoelKatz”, revealed that although the 35 billion XRP held in Ripple’s escrow cannot be circulated until their scheduled monthly releases, the company can sell or transfer the rights to those future tokens. This means Ripple could essentially sell the accounts that escrows will eventually release into, even if the coins themselves remain locked for now.

This new detail doesn’t change the technical restrictions of the escrow system but introduces a financial dimension many hadn’t considered. With XRP’s total supply capped at 100 billion, 65 billion already circulating and about 35 billion still in escrow across more than 14,000 contracts, the idea that Ripple can trade rights to those locked tokens adds complexity to how investors view its reserves.

A Fresh Take on Market Supply and Valuation

For years, XRP’s market cap calculations have excluded escrowed tokens, while Bitcoin’s include every mined coin, even those lost forever. This discrepancy often sparks debate about whether XRP’s market value appears smaller than it should be. Schwartz’s clarification now blurs those lines further. While the liquidity of XRP remains unchanged, Ripple’s ability to sell rights to escrowed tokens means those future coins could carry real value today.

This revelation could prompt data providers and analysts to rethink how they classify XRP’s “available” supply, possibly influencing how market participants compare it with other top cryptocurrencies.

Analysts Weigh In: Mixed Short-Term Views

Adding to the discussion, prominent analyst CoinsKid expressed renewed optimism about XRP’s price trajectory. He initially expected XRP to reach .13 in this cycle but now believes it could climb even higher after its recent pullback, reaffirming his long-term target of $27.

Meanwhile, Crypto analyst CasiTrades took a more cautious view, saying XRP remains in a ranging phase below the critical $2.82 resistance. He believes one final wave down could occur toward $1.35–$1.46 before a major bullish impulse potentially drives XRP up to $6.50 or even $10.

Together, their insights reflect today’s mood around XRP, uncertain but full of anticipation, as investors weigh Ripple’s escrow twist against hopes for a major breakout ahead.

FAQs

XRP’s escrow locks 35 billion tokens across 14,000+ contracts for gradual release from a 100 billion total supply, with 65 billion circulating; it controls supply to stabilize markets and boost investor trust.

No, the tokens themselves remain locked, but Ripple can trade the rights to receive them later—meaning buyers get future access, which could value those reserves today without flooding the market.

Yes. The ability to sell escrow rights may affect investor sentiment and valuation models, influencing how analysts and traders price XRP long-term.

By Adam Clark

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were falling early on Tuesday as the crypto sector's surge on the back of trade optimism stalled.

Bitcoin's price was down 0.7% over the past 24 hours, at around $114,589, after surging from $110,000 in recent days amid positive signs that a U.S.-China trade agreement could be close to being confirmed.

"The combination of expected Fed easing and renewed optimism around U. S. — China trade talks has supported Bitcoin's latest rebound," said David Hernandez, an analyst at 21Shares. "If the Fed signals additional cuts and trade progress deepens, risk assets could see a fresh wave of speculative inflows, especially Bitcoin."

Several large altcoins were falling. Ethereum dropped 1.1% and Solana was down 0.1%. Dogecoin, which is a memecoin, was losing 1.5%.

Crypto-exposed stocks were falling. Strategy, the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin in the world, was down 0.3% in the premarket while U.S. crypto-exchange Coinbase Global was dropping 0.1%.

Shares of Strive, the Bitcoin treasury company co-founded by Vivek Ramaswamy and known for railing against "woke" corporate policies, were down 8.5% in the premarket after gaining 49% the previous day.

Shares of Strive began surging late last week, with the rally accelerating Friday after Bitcoin investor Mike Alfred said in a post on social-media site X post that he had taken a more than one million-share stake in the company.

Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

With large-scale investors clearly regaining confidence in spot ETFs, Ethereum looks to be setting up for a significant institution-driven move. According to data available, Bitcoin spot ETFs saw net inflows of $149 million on Oct. 27, which was the third day in a row that they saw positive capital movement. More significantly, there were zero net outflows from any of the nine active Ethereum spot ETFs, resulting in $134 million in total inflows. This is an uncommon and potent sign of ongoing institutional appetite.

ETH ETFs surge

This surge of inflows comes after the crypto ETF market stagnated in early October, indicating that high-cap assets are currently being favored by capital rotation. This institutional support for Ethereum may serve as the impetus needed to move prices above the crucial $4,200 resistance level, paving the way for a move toward $5,000, which analysts and fund managers are increasingly pointing to as the next sensible price target.SosoValue">

Technically speaking, Ethereum is still in a precarious consolidation stage. For the majority of Q4, the price has been acting as resistance, hovering just below the 200-day moving average. If inflows keep up their current rate, a breakout above this level would probably turn momentum-based buying into a buying spree. Since the market is neither overbought nor oversold, there is room for expansion, as indicated by the RSI close to 51. Chart by TradingView">

In addition to providing liquidity, institutional flows also reflect a change in sentiment. Professional investors are increasingly viewing digital assets as viable long-term exposure in the face of conventional market uncertainty, as evidenced by the steady inflows into both BTC and ETH ETFs. In other words, Ethereum’s journey to $5,000 depends on this institutional momentum, with substantial financial resources as well as on retail participation.

It is not a question of whether, but when, ETH will test the $5,000 mark again if the current inflow trend continues for another week. This is because ETH has the potential to decisively break its resistance ceiling.

Circle Internet Group has launched the public testnet for Arc, its new Layer 1 blockchain built to support large-scale financial and enterprise applications onchain.

Framed as an "Economic Operating System for the internet," Arc boasts participation from over 100 organizations across banking, capital markets, payments, and technology, the firm said on Tuesday, with the testnet now live for developers and enterprises to deploy, test, and build applications on the network.

"With Arc's public testnet, we're seeing remarkable early momentum as leading companies, protocols, and projects begin to build and test," Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire said in a statement. "Combined, these companies reach billions of users, move, exchange, and custody hundreds of trillions in assets and payments, and support local economies across Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. This geographic diversity highlights a defining strength of Arc: its purpose-built to connect every local market to the global economy."

According to Circle, Arc features predictable dollar-based fees, sub-second transaction finality, opt-in configurable privacy, and direct integration with the company's full-stack platform. The network aims to provide enterprise-grade infrastructure for a range of use cases spanning global payments, capital markets, foreign exchange, and lending.

Fresh off the back of its successful $1.2 billion IPO, Circle first unveiled plans for the stablecoin-focused Layer 1 blockchain in August, using USDC as its native gas token.

Circle is the second-largest stablecoin issuer, accounting for $76 billion of the approximate $292 billion total U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin supply, per The Block's data dashboard. Analysts at research and brokerage firm Bernstein recently backed Circle to deliver the most dominant stablecoin network amid its Arc blockchain plans.

Broad institutional participation

The Arc testnet launch has drawn engagement from leading institutions across multiple sectors. In capital markets, participants include Apollo, BNY Mellon, Intercontinental Exchange (owner of NYSE), and State Street. Banks, asset managers, and insurers joining the testnet span Absa, BlackRock, BTG Pactual, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, Emirates NBD, Fiserv, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Invesco, SBI Holdings, Société Générale, Standard Chartered, and WisdomTree. 

Circle said Arc's architecture supports real-time, frictionless payments for businesses and institutions, and could eventually enable autonomous AI systems to exchange and settle value globally. Payments and technology participants include Amazon Web Services, Visa, Mastercard, Cloudflare, Brex, FIS, Nuvei, Paysafe, and Vodafone's Pairpoint.

Arc also provides native infrastructure for stablecoin and tokenized asset issuance, with fiat-denominated tokens such as Forte Securities' AUDF, Avenia's BRLA, JPYC Inc.'s JPYC, BDACS' KRW1, Juno's MXNB, Coins.ph's PHPC, and Stablecorp's QCAD participating in the testnet. Circle said it is engaging with a wide range of other stablecoin issuers and global stakeholders to bring dollar, euro, and additional fiat tokens onto Arc.

Developer and market infrastructure

The network's developer ecosystem includes key infrastructure and tooling providers such as Alchemy, Chainlink, LayerZero, Thirdweb, and QuickNode, alongside wallet support from MetaMask, Fireblocks, Ledger, and Turnkey. Circle said it is also working with Anthropic, whose Claude Agent SDK is being used to enhance the developer experience on Arc with AI-powered tools. Additionally, cross-chain protocols, including Wormhole and Stargate, are integrating with Arc to connect it to other blockchains, while exchanges and liquidity providers such as Coinbase, Kraken, Robinhood, Galaxy Digital, and Wintermute are engaging with the testnet to build out trading and market functionality.

Circle said Arc's design aims to combine high-performance infrastructure with regulatory-grade compliance and risk management, making it suitable for institutions operating across traditional and digital finance. The network's roadmap includes expanding validator participation and developing transparent governance frameworks to transition Arc toward community-driven operation.

"Arc presents the opportunity for every type of company to build on enterprise-grade network infrastructure — advancing a shared vision that a more open, inclusive, and efficient global economic system can be built natively on the internet," Allaire said.

Disclaimer: Evgeny Gaevoy, the founder and CEO of Wintermute, previously sat on The Block’s board of directors from April 2023 to early November 2023 and remains a minority shareholder.

Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.

© 2025 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Circle, the world’s second-largest stablecoin issuer, has launched the public testnet for Arc, its open layer-1 blockchain network built to bring global financial infrastructure onchain.

The rollout, which Circle calls the “Economic Operating System for the internet,” includes participation from over 100 major firms spanning banking, capital markets and fintech — among them BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Visa, Mastercard and State Street, according to a Tuesday announcement.

“With Arc’s public testnet, we’re seeing remarkable early momentum as leading companies, protocols, and projects begin to build and test,” Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said. “Combined, these companies reach billions of users, move, exchange, and custody hundreds of trillions in assets and payments,” he added.

Arc is designed to provide predictable US dollar-based fees, sub-second finality and optional privacy controls, directly integrating with Circle’s USDC (USDC) stablecoin and payments stack. It aims to support a broad range of financial applications, from lending and capital markets to global payments and foreign exchange (FX).

Institutions join Circle’s Arc testnet

The testnet launch has drawn engagement from major institutions such as Apollo, BNY Mellon, Intercontinental Exchange and Deutsche Bank, as well as global payment firms Mastercard, FIS, Paysafe and Nuvei.

Vilnius, Lithuania, October 28th, 2025, Chainwire

Eleven-year analysis (2014–2025) finds Bitcoin accounts for 44% of all transactions on CoinGate; in 2025, YTD Bitcoin leads with 22.7% share, ahead of USDT, LTC, and USDC.

CoinGate today released Bitcoin Payments: Eleven-Year Data Overview (2014–2025), a longitudinal analysis of retail crypto payments on its platform. The study shows that Bitcoin (BTC) has generated 44% of all transactions processed on CoinGate since 2014. From 2025 to date, Bitcoin has again been the most used currency at 22.7% of orders, followed by USDT (19.8%), LTC (14.0%), and USDC (11.5%).

The full report is available here: Bitcoin Payments: Eleven-Year Data Overview.

The findings highlight Bitcoin’s endurance across market cycles and competitive shifts. In 2022, BTC payment volume on CoinGate grew 41.7% year-over-year despite a bear market. In 2024, stablecoins – especially USDT – temporarily took the lead. In 2025, BTC returned to #1 as MiCA regulations phased out USDT in the EU.

Geography remains broad. In 2025 YTD, the United States (40.3%) leads BTC orders, followed by Germany (6.3%), the United Kingdom (5.8%), the Netherlands (5.2%), and Canada (4.0%). 

This pattern is consistent with CoinGate’s regional trends analysis for 2025, which found the U.S. increasing its lead while Europe shows mixed preferences by country, and stablecoins remain more prominent across parts of Asia and Nigeria (Insights: Crypto Payments Around the World in 2025). Average order values indicate diverse use cases: the average BTC cart is €132 in 2025, above the platform average, with transactions ranging from micro-purchases to high-value services.

Average order values indicate diverse use cases: the average BTC cart is €132 in 2025, above the platform average, with transactions ranging from micro-purchases to high-value services.

Merchant categories show continued strength in digital-first sectors. In 2025 YTD, BTC payments are most common in web hosting (35.3%), followed by consumer goods (11.0%), VPNs (7.4%), proxies (6.9%), and IT services (6.1%). The Bitcoin Lightning Network also contributes meaningfully to activity: since CoinGate integrated Lightning in 2018, 6% of all BTC orders have used it; in 2025 YTD, Lightning accounts for 11.7% of BTC orders, while it peaked in 2024 with a 15.41% share.

Settlement behavior suggests rising long-term confidence among merchants. In 2025, 25.9% of BTC received by merchants on CoinGate was retained in BTC rather than immediately exchanged. The remainder was primarily settled in EUR (52.9%), USDC (12.9%), and USD (4.2%).

Methodology

The report analyzes CoinGate’s internal, aggregated payment data from 2014 through September 2025. Definitions include: processed orders (completed BTC payments), payment share (BTC’s percentage of total crypto payments), average cart size (euro value at the moment of payment), settlements (post-payment handling), payouts (SEND transactions from merchant balances), and Lightning payments (BTC orders via the Lightning Network since 2018). Minor variations may occur due to rounding and exchange rates. For more on CoinGate’s payments infrastructure, visit CoinGate.

About CoinGate

Founded in 2014, CoinGate is a cryptocurrency payment processor that enables businesses to accept and manage payments in crypto assets across multiple networks and Layer 2 solutions. The company also provides crypto payouts and cross-asset FX tools for business disbursements. CoinGate is based in Lithuania and serves merchants worldwide.

Users can learn more at coingate.com.

Contact

Content Manager

Vilius Barbaravicius

CoinGate

vilius.barbaravicius@coingate.com