According to software engineer Vincent Van Code, fresh practical reasons are emerging for renewed confidence in XRP among some developers and investors. He argues that the biggest barrier to big firms holding XRP directly isn’t price or interest — it’s operations and compliance.
Custody Costs Stall Direct Holdings
Van Code told followers that big companies can’t just “set up a Ledger or Xumm wallet and drop $100 million in there.” He said institutions need formal custody arrangements, regular audits and compliance systems before they will touch crypto on a large scale.
Reports place the upkeep of those services at about $300,000 a year for a single institutional setup, a figure that helps explain why many firms prefer not to hold tokens on their own balance sheets.
ETFs And Equity Routes Gain Traction
Based on reports, Van Code believes that exchange-traded funds and public companies that hold XRP will be the easiest route for institutions to gain exposure.
There are currently seven applications for XRP ETFs pending with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, though filings have been paused amid the US government shutdown.
For many large investors, buying shares in a regulated fund or a company with an XRP treasury avoids the need to run custody systems in-house.
Evernorth has become a focal point in that discussion. The venture, backed in part by Ripple, plans to build what it calls an institutional XRP treasury.
Evernorth aims to purchase $1 billion worth of XRP and will start with over 560 million XRP after it secures $1.1 billion in committed capital from participants that include Ripple and SBI Holdings.
Reports say the firm is pursuing a merger that is expected to close in Q1 2026, and the XRP purchases are planned to take place within 10 days of funding.
Market Bets And Margin Positions
Market activity indicates that certain traders are making considerable wagers on the near-term trajectory of XRP. Reports identified a sizable position in the Hyperliquid derivatives exchange where an anonymous trader made a $1,000,000 long position with an entry price of $2.409, representing 416,736 tokens.
The position was put on with 10x exposure, and the community figure of Xaif helped to highlight the trade this week. Positions like this typically indicate short-term bullish sentiment from traders, although they can also cause increased price swings.
Featured image from Pixabay, chart from TradingView
