TL;DR

• John Wingate, the CEO of Bank Social and a Hedera developer, made a highly bullish statement on X in regards to HBAR and XRP.
• Although he said to think ‘1000000000x’ big when it comes to XRP, he later revealed that this does not translate particularly for its price.

Just had a meeting with the @Ripple team.

A great meeting. Maybe the greatest meeting in the history of international settlements.@hedera and $HBAR are still a huge part of the strategy.

And now, so is $XRP

You’re not thinking BIG enough. Think BIG – then 1000000000x it.

— John Wingate (@PresidentHODL) May 23, 2025

Given the growing size and loudness of the XRP Army, his post quickly picked up the pace and became the talk on Crypto X for the past day or so.

Although he didn’t provide much detail on what a potential partnership could look like among the three parties (Ripple, Hedera, and Bank Social), he called the meeting with the Ripple team “the greatest in the history of international settlements.”

In a subsequent reply, Wingate explained that HBAR will be used for backend ops (state checks – app nets (HCS)), while XRP will employ its role for international money movement into certain jurisdictions. BSL will be used for loans, lending, staking, and social governance around the DAO.

The zeros Wingate put in his original post raised some speculations among XRP investors whether he was referring to a potential price target for the asset. However, he quickly refuted this, saying he never gives price predictions. Instead, he said he was referring to the on-chain transaction volume relative to the usage today.

I never discuss price – these zeros are in reference to volume moved and onchain transaction volume – relative to the use today.

I never give predictions on price

— John Wingate (@PresidentHODL) May 24, 2025

Although Wingate didn’t mean to discuss XRP price predictions, if you are interested in the topic, you can find more here, especially how ChatGPT has ranked some of the most outrageous ones.

Bitcoin surpassed its all-time high of $109K earlier this week, reaching a new high of $112K. Despite this, the price exhibits slight bullish momentum, suggesting a potential consolidation at this level for the short term.

Technical Analysis

The Daily Chart

Bitcoin has officially broken above its previous all-time high of $109K, establishing a new peak around the $112K region. This breakout underscores strong buyer interest and highlights the bullish sentiment that continues to fuel this cycle.

However, the recent price action suggests that bullish momentum is softening, with BTC beginning a minor pullback toward the broken $109K level. This area now acts as a crucial support zone. If renewed demand materializes at this level, Bitcoin could resume its upward trajectory toward the $115K mark and potentially higher.

Conversely, if selling pressure intensifies and the $109K level fails to hold, a deeper correction may unfold. In this scenario, a retest of the psychological $100K support becomes increasingly probable, potentially classifying the breakout as a bull trap, shaking investor confidence, and introducing volatility in the short term.

The 4-Hour Chart

On the 4-hour chart, BTC maintains a bullish market structure, with a clear sequence of higher highs and higher lows. The price has consistently respected an ascending trendline, which remains a key dynamic support.

Following the breakout, Bitcoin is currently retracing toward this trendline as well as the broken $109K swing high. This confluence zone will play a pivotal role in determining the next move. Should it hold, a renewed rally toward the $115K resistance zone becomes highly likely.

However, if Bitcoin fails to hold this level and breaks below the trendline, it would signal short-term weakness, opening the door for a correction toward the $100K range.

On-chain Analysis

By ShayanMarkets

While BTC has reached a new all-time high at $112K, a wave of profit-taking is naturally expected, particularly from short-term traders securing gains. However, a deeper look into on-chain metrics reveals a contrasting narrative among long-term holders, investors who have held BTC for over 150 days.

The LTH-SOPR has remained relatively low during this rally, especially when compared to the levels seen during Bitcoin’s surge to $73K in late-2024. Despite the price now being significantly higher, long-term holders are not showing signs of major profit realization. This indicates ongoing accumulation behavior, reflecting confidence in higher future valuations.

This divergence in behavior highlights that the current consolidation phase is likely driven by short-term holders and retail participants, rather than broader market distribution. If long-term holders continue to display conviction, Bitcoin is well-positioned to resume its uptrend following this short-term pause, with the potential to set new ATHs in the mid-term.

As the market leader, bitcoin opened the doors for spot crypto ETFs in early 2024 when 11 (at first, then 12) such products were finally greenlighted in the United States following years and years of delays and rejections.

Ethereum followed suit in July and now the question is not if but which cryptocurrency will have its own spot exchange-traded fund in the US, with some of the leading contenders being XRP, SOL, DOGE, and LTC.

Trying to summarize the importance of crypto ETFs in just one minute, Ripple’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, outlined two key reasons why these financial vehicles are so important.

Institutional Access

Before the January 2024 launch of spot BTC ETFs on Wall Street, institutional market participants had to rely on more unusual (for them) access points to get bitcoin exposure, such as cryptocurrency exchanges and self-custody. However, the introduction of these financial vehicles changed the game entirely for them, which is evident from the mindblowing demand for most spot Bitcoin ETFs, especially BlackRock’s IBIT.

“So, this was really the first time you had institutions be able to go on Wall Street and trade directly in crypto,” Garlinghouse explained.

Capital that previously couldn’t enter the cryptocurrency space, such as endowment, pension funds, or even mutual funds, now has a dozen options to do so.

Institutionalizing the Industry

The second reason complements the first, Garlinghouse noted, as it simply changes the focus in the cryptocurrency industry, at least for the bigger projects, mostly on larger investors and institutions.

As mentioned above, BlackRock’s IBIT broke multiple records in terms of net inflows for its year and a half in existence.

“It should be no surprise that a Bitcoin ETF was the fastest ETF ever to get to $1 billion in assets.”

It has become a behemoth as its total holdings are double that of the rest of the Bitcoin ETFs combined. As of Friday’s close, BlackRock’s BTC ETF had almost $48 billion in AUM as it continues to dominate the net inflows. IBIT has not seen a single day in the red since the market-wide crashes in early April. Consequently, Garlinghouse predicted that it will eventually close in on the gold ETFs as well.

In terms of a spot Ripple ETF, the news from the SEC is somewhat expected as the agency continues to delay making a decision on a couple of filings. Polymarket shows that the chances of an XRP ETF hitting the US markets this year stand at well over 80%, but the percentage drops to 21% when the deadline is set at July 31.

Nevertheless, Ripple saw some success on the ETF front as a few futures-based funds went live for trading in the past month or so.