XRP’s ‘Legal Clarity’ Has a Catch – Banks Still Fear Torres’ Institutional-Sales Label

Six months after the SEC officially ended its crusade against Ripple, a paradox has gripped the desk: U.S. institutions are aggressively dumping direct XRP exposure while simultaneously lining up for the ETF launch.

At the time of writing, XRP was trading at $1.22, heavily discounted from its July 2025 peak of $3.65.

Despite the “legal clarity” celebrated in August, institutional conviction appears fractured. While Bitwise and WisdomTree updated their S-1 filings in October—pushing approval odds to a near-certain 95%—institutional Futures Open Interest (OI) has collapsed 73% since the settlement.

The Evidence

The Settlement: The August 2025 Joint Stipulation finalized a $125 million penalty for historical institutional sales. Additionally, the SEC dropped its appeals, cementing the 2023 summary judgment that public sales are not securities.

The Divergence:

Reaction & Outlook

The Paul Atkins Factor: The new SEC Chair’s “Project Crypto” initiative has deprioritized enforcement, but banks remain paralyzed by the specific wording of Judge Torres’ ruling: direct sales to institutions are securities.

Next Step: The market is pricing in a spot ETF approval by Q2 2026. Until then, liquidity remains thin.

The Institutional Take

Don’t misread the futures collapse as bearishness; it is a compliance rotation. The Torres ruling created a toxic asset class for U.S. banks: holding XRP directly on a balance sheet still carries “institutional sales” stigma.

The ETF is the loophole. It wraps the “dirty” underlying asset in a “clean” securities structure (19b-4). Smart money is dumping the token to front-run the ETF, effectively swapping compliance risk for a 34bps management fee. Expect OI to remain dead until the ETF goes live.

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