At XRP Seoul 2026 on October 3, Ripple President Monica Long revealed plans to move customer transaction volume directly onto the XRPL in 2027. According to AMBCrypto, Ripple wants to expand a payment pilot that runs through the ledger's DEX and link the payments business with the lending plumbing being built on XRPL. The company plans to use XRP in lending pools that could fund Ripple's payment customers, transforming the native token from merely shuttling money between banks to serving as a source of income for businesses. This represents a significant shift from Ripple's current payment infrastructure, where deploying Ripple Payments alone does not reveal which asset settles specific flows, as the service may coordinate cross-border transfers using conventional currencies or utilize RLUSD or XRP depending on transaction design.
Four Korean financial institutions participated alongside Ripple at XRP Seoul 2026, demonstrating the company's expanding reach in the South Korean market. According to reports from the event, Jeonbuk Bank has planned Ripple Payments deployment for cross-border business remittances, marking it as the first regional bank in Korea to deploy the service. The deployment provides near-real-time settlement capabilities for international transactions, with Ripple stating that transfers that traditionally required days can instead complete within seconds to minutes and operate around the clock. Kbank has implemented two distinct Ripple-related initiatives as reported by the event sources, conducting a remittance pilot targeting the UAE and Thailand, while also developing institutional wallet-as-a-service infrastructure through Ripple Custody. Reports named Woori Bank, Kbank and Kyobo Securities as participants, while leaving the fourth participant uncertain between Jeonbuk Bank and Kakao Bank. Representatives from Woori Bank, K Bank, and JB Bank joined a panel on cross-border payments and tokenized deposits, though they did not announce that they joined XRP Asia or deployed the XRPL. The event has sent XRP holders into a frenzy, with many interpreting the banks' presence as a sign that banks use XRP, though the details shared during the event do not explicitly mention XRP as the asset used for transactions.
The event featured significant institutional participation with Woori Bank Senior Manager Seunghoon Han and Kakao Bank Manager Leo Lee appearing in separate sessions. Han joined Ripple APAC Sales Director Jinnie Lee, Kbank's Jaehyuk Choi, Kyobo Securities Executive Director Heejin Shin and JB Bank's Mansik Yoon for a panel titled 'From Cross-Border Payments to Tokenized Deposits'. Kakao Bank appeared separately in a session titled 'Bringing Stablecoins into Everyday Finance'. While these institutional representatives spoke at the event, neither Woori nor Kakao Bank announced that they had joined XRP Asia, committed to deploy the XRPL, or signed new Ripple partnerships at the event as of October 4. The distinction matters as some early reports bundled the banks together with the XRP Asia announcement, but the official program shows no participation in the 20-minute XRP Asia launch fireside. For now, the evidence for Woori Bank and Kakao Bank stops at participation in discussions about payments, tokenization, and stablecoins, with no banking infrastructure placed on the XRP Ledger. Each bank presenting at the event has established a working relationship with Ripple, but the details do not explicitly mention XRP as the asset used for transactions.
According to the event disclosures, Ripple Payments can coordinate cross-border transfers using conventional currencies such as dollars, won, or yen. The service may also utilize RLUSD or XRP depending on transaction design, though deploying Ripple Payments alone does not reveal which asset settles specific flows. A separate bridge-asset model converts value into XRP, moves it through the XRP Ledger, and converts it into destination currency, potentially reducing the need for advance funding with foreign intermediary banks. The Asian expansion strategy builds on Ripple's existing work with Kyobo Life Insurance on on-chain government-bond settlement and Kbank on institutional wallet infrastructure through Ripple Custody. Ripple plans to use pooled XRP as collateral to help fund customer payments as part of credit-related pilots, though using Ripple's products does not necessarily create demand for the XRP token, as a Ripple Payments partnership signals use of Ripple's payment infrastructure rather than automatic XRP settlement. Ripple President Monica Long called this moment the start of the 'next big institutional growth phase' for the XRP Ledger, though this statement is more of a potential future forecast rather than evidence of current XRP usage by these banks.
Despite the strategic announcements, XRP was trading at $1.49 at the time of writing, down 1.7% in 24 hours. According to AMBCrypto, the token has spent two weeks between $1.47 and $1.55 since going up near $1.65 in late September. The technical indicators show RSI near-neutral at 55 and Chaikin Money Flow back at zero after most of September in the red, indicating that while sellers have been shaken off, buyers haven't shown up either. The derivatives market reflects similar sentiment, with open interest flat at about $1.45 billion and funding back to a mild 0.0079% after a brief negative turn a few days prior. If Ripple actually turns XRP into loan capital for payment businesses, that could change the token's price dynamics significantly, as the current market reaction suggests traders aren't yet pricing in the potential for XRP to serve as a source of income for payment businesses rather than just a bridge asset.
