Ripple executive predicts rapid institutional crypto adoption by 2026
Institutional adoption is expected to pick up pace by Ripple’s Reece Merrick.
- Institutional adoption. Ripple Managing Director Reece Merrick said institutional adoption of crypto will accelerate sharply, predicting that by the end of 2026 every major bank, asset manager, and payment network will have meaningful exposure.
Ripple Managing Director Reece Merrick has predicted that institutional adoption is going to accelerate at a rapid pace in 2026.
“By end of 2026, this number will increase and every significant bank, asset manager, and payment network will have meaningful exposure,” he said. Merrick is arguing that crypto is no longer an optional asset class, meaning that institutional investors have to embrace it in order to remain competitive.
Traditional finance (TradFi) banks that do not offer crypto services will lose clients to those that do. If a customer cannot hold Bitcoin or stablecoins in their JP Morgan or Chase account, they will move their capital to a fintech competitor (like Coinbase or Revolut).
- Regulatory clarity. The GENIUS Act classifies compliant stablecoins, including RLUSD, as permitted payment infrastructure.
For instance, banks were paralyzed because they didn’t know if stablecoins would be classified as illegal securities. The GENIUS Act officially classified compliant stablecoins, including RLUSD, as permitted payment infrastructure.
Banks like JPMorgan and Standard Chartered began integrating stablecoin rails directly into their backend. Asset managers also realized that tokenized Treasury bills of the likes of BlackRock’s BUIDL could be used as collateral for trading on a round-the-clock basis.
SHIB OI surges despite crypto market-wide weakness
Shiba Inu has flipped Bitcoin and XRP in futures activity, as its open interest volume shows an impressive 3.42% surge.
- OI spike. SHIB futures open interest jumped 3.42% in the last 24 hours, with traders committing 11.03 trillion SHIB to active contracts.
The broad crypto market is down, but the Shiba Inu derivatives market has shown strength, flipping all leading cryptocurrencies, which have continued to see weak futures activity over the last day.
Despite the negative market trend, Shiba Inu has seen its open interest surge notably by 3.42% over the last day, with traders committing a massive 11.03 trillion SHIB to its futures market, according to data from the futures market.
SHIB futures open interest jumped 3.42% in the last 24 hours, with traders committing 11.03 trillion SHIB to active contracts.
- Sentiment shift. In dollar terms, more than $80 million worth of SHIB is now tied up in futures positions.
After multiple days of trading negatively, the impressive open interest volume marks a major shift in investor sentiment, as the token has restored hopes with its strong futures activity.
While leading cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and XRP have seen their open interest each plummet by about 2%, Shiba Inu has flipped the leading crypto assets in the key metric, as over $80 million worth of the tokens have been committed in active contracts.
XRP Ledger makes first move toward post-quantum security
XRPL is already testing quantum-resistant transactions on its network, while Bitcoin developers warn a full upgrade could take years.
- Post-quantum. The XRP Ledger has taken its first concrete step into the post-quantum era.
The XRP Ledger has taken its first real step into the post-quantum era. Its AlphaNet rolled out Dilithium-based cryptography, which is designed to protect against future attacks from quantum computers that could one day render current digital signatures ineffective.
According to the statement, developers can now create quantum-resistant accounts and execute transactions secured by the new algorithm. This upgrade puts XRP ahead of Bitcoin and most other major blockchains.
- BTC challenge. Bitcoin developers have acknowledged that a similar transition would be far more complex.
Bitcoin developers acknowledge that shifting to a similar standard will be a marathon, not a sprint. Casa cofounder Jameson Lopp estimates that adapting the entire Bitcoin network could take at least 5 to 10 years, as every node, wallet and stored coin would require a coordinated migration to new cryptographic rules.
Quantum computing is still in its early stages, but once it has the power to challenge modern encryption, older wallets — including Satoshi Nakamoto’s 1.1 million BTC, worth nearly $98 billion — could be vulnerable. Lopp and others have suggested freezing vulnerable coins to prevent catastrophic breaches.