Armada Acquisition Corp. II (XRPN) surged approximately 273% last week, closing at $38.65 on Monday after touching a high of $53 during the week, according to Google Finance data. The special purpose acquisition company is merging with Evernorth, an XRP treasury company, with the deal expected to close on Wednesday, October 7. The dramatic price movement reflects investor excitement about the merger, which will bring hundreds of millions of XRP tokens into public trading. About 80% of Armada's trust funds appear set to be returned to shareholders, potentially reducing the number of publicly traded shares and contributing to sharp price swings. The combined company is expected to begin trading on Thursday, October 8.
Evernorth expects to hold approximately 473 million XRP at closing, valued at about $714 million at Monday's price of roughly $1.51, as reported by CoinDesk. The company's announced financing includes approximately $300 million in gross cash proceeds before expenses, comprising $225 million from private placements, $30 million in convertible notes and $48 million from Armada's trust. However, some of the XRP purchased with cash is already worth substantially less than Evernorth paid. The company spent $214.1 million buying 84.4 million XRP through the end of 2025, an average of about $2.54, which would now be worth roughly $127 million. The deal comes as other cryptocurrency treasury listings have struggled after their mergers, with Tether-backed Twenty One falling 25% in early trading on its NYSE debut in December.
Exchange reserves are shrinking significantly as whale-sized outflows dominate trading activity. Analyst Amr Taha, citing CryptoQuant data, noted that Binance's XRP balance dropped from 2.704 billion to 2.631 billion XRP between September 26 and October 4. Upbit lost another 31.6 million XRP between September 11 and October 5. Together, the two exchanges shed about 104.7 million tokens. Whale outflow dominance reached 84.2% on September 29 on Binance, while retail's share fell to 15%. Meanwhile, Santiment data shows one large-holder group growing over the same month, with addresses holding 10 million to 100 million XRP owning 13.8 billion tokens on October 6, compared with 12.48 billion on September 6.
XRP ETFs have recorded net inflows for 12 consecutive weeks, demonstrating institutional confidence despite market volatility. Since mid-July, Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs each posted 3 weekly outflows, while Hyperliquid ETFs recorded 4. However, the pace slowed last week with XRP funds adding $4.74 million versus $75.6 million a week earlier. XRP itself trades at $1.51, down 1.36% on the day, according to BeInCrypto Markets. The token closed July, August, and September higher, gaining more than 43% in the quarter. Leverage has lagged that rally, with XRP open interest on Binance standing at $516.6 million, remaining far below October 2025's $1.3 billion.
XRP's chart shows improving momentum with daily RSI at 55.23 and MACD near 0.0373, though the indicator remains neutral below its signal line around 0.0443. Bollinger Bands place the upper boundary close to $1.63 and the lower band near $1.29, with XRP currently trading inside the range. Moving averages offer a firmer recovery signal, with the 20-day EMA around $1.47, 50-day EMA near $1.38, and 100-day EMA close to $1.32, with XRP remaining above all three levels. The first support is $1.45, the level XRP tested twice in late September and bounced from both times, making it a meaningful floor. A move through $1.52-$1.56 would bring the upper Bollinger Band around $1.63 into focus, while a loss of $1.45 could send XRP back toward its 50-day EMA around $1.38. Recent analysis shows a four-hour close above $1.53 could open a move toward $1.62.
XRP is positioned for a pivotal week in October with four major dates lined up in the first week of the month, as reported by AMBCrypto. The week begins with XRP Seoul hosting banks and Ripple on October 3, followed by the Evernorth deal completion on October 7, where the company will take its XRP treasury company XRPN public on Nasdaq with approximately 473 million XRP on its balance sheet. The week concludes with XRPN starting trading on Nasdaq on October 8 and the XRPL Batch amendment (XLS-56) on October 9, which already has more than 85% of validators supporting it and would empower the ledger to settle up to eight transactions atomically. The timing coincides with pre-merger shares jumping by 81%, creating another pillar of institutional adoption for XRP's Q4 setup. AI-linked payments received fresh attention during XRP Seoul 2026 on October 3, with tracked x402 payments reaching 11,965,947 by October 3, according to data from infrastructure provider t54, with a seven-day average of 525,618 payments per day.
