Ripple's Q1 Report: SEC Lawsuit Closed, XRP Surpasses Bitcoin

Ripple has just released its Q1 2025 XRP market report, and it looks like a winning streak. From outperforming the market to finally closing the long-standing legal battle with the SEC, Ripple's start to the year has been exciting. The SEC case closes: Ripple steps forward as the winner In one of the biggest stories of the year for cryptocurrency, the SEC has officially withdrawn its appeal against Ripple, ending their years-long legal battle. The regulatory agency has also agreed to reduce the proposed fine from $125 million to $50 million and requested the court to lift the ban on Ripple. And it's not just Ripple that benefits. The new U.S. government has lifted some old restrictions on cryptocurrency. A powerful move worth 1.25 billion dollars The company has acquired Hidden Road, a global prime brokerage firm, for a whopping $1.25 billion. This deal provides Ripple with new tools to expand its institutional services. Hidden Road will begin using Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin as collateral and will rely on the XRP Ledger to facilitate faster and cheaper post-trade activities in the foreign exchange, swaps, and repo markets. The amount of XRP held by Ripple is increasing. By the end of March 2025, Ripple holds 4.56 billion XRP, up from 4.48 billion at the beginning of the year. Another 37.13 billion XRP remains locked in escrow accounts, gradually being released over the next 42 months. Activity on the XRPL has cooled down, but DeFi remains strong. After a spike at the end of 2024, activity on the XRP Ledger has calmed down a bit. The number of transactions and the number of new wallets created have both decreased by about 30–40%, in line with what has happened in the broader cryptocurrency market. But there is a bright spot — DeFi activity is still performing better than most blockchains. The trading volume on decentralized exchanges (DEX) only decreased by 16%, while other major chains saw much sharper declines. Ripple's stablecoin RLUSD also increased in value, surpassing a market capitalization of $90 million with over $300 million traded on DEX. XRP outperforms the market While Bitcoin and Ethereum struggled to rise in Q1, XRP took all the attention. It increased nearly 50% at the beginning of February and held strong while other major names declined. Even as the market fluctuated, XRP has proven to be one of the strongest performing assets in this space. The numbers speak for themselves. Investment products based on XRP have seen an influx of $37.7 million in just three months, bringing the total amount for 2025 to $214 million — just $1 million away from surpassing the global fund of Ethereum. But there is a significant change — after eight years of publishing these detailed reports, Ripple has announced that this will be the last report in the current format. The company stated that it is time to change the way it communicates with the market. "After careful consideration, Ripple has decided to stop reporting in the current format starting in the second quarter of 2025," the report states.