XRP Loses $1 Support as Korean Bank Adds Ripple Payments to Its Services

Jeonbuk Bank is adopting Ripple’s round-the-clock cross-border payments network for corporate remittances, although it has not been confirmed whether XRP or Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin will be used for settlement.

XRP fell beneath the $1 mark during Asian trading Tuesday, reaching around $0.98 and touching its lowest level since November 2024.

The decline came as Ripple announced its latest partnership in South Korea, making Jeonbuk Bank the first regional lender in the country to deploy Ripple Payments for international transfers.

The agreement is Ripple’s third Korean partnership this year. Earlier in 2026, the company struck deals with Kyobo Life Insurance and Kbank covering digital-asset custody and wallet infrastructure.

Founded in 1969 and based in Jeonju, Jeonbuk Bank is the dominant lender in South Korea’s southwestern region.

Ripple said its payment infrastructure supports near-instant cross-border settlement through stablecoins, but did not identify the digital asset that will be used by Jeonbuk Bank.

Traditional international transfers typically rely on intermediary banks and the SWIFT messaging system, often taking days to complete. Ripple says its network can settle payments within seconds or minutes and is available around the clock.

Jeonbuk Bank plans to provide the service to business customers, including importers, exporters, technology startups and digital content companies.

Ripple Builds Its South Korean Footprint

Fiona Murray, Ripple’s managing director for Asia Pacific, said the agreement demonstrates growing interest in digital-asset infrastructure among Korean financial institutions.

She said banks are increasingly developing digital-asset capabilities and searching for long-term infrastructure partners. Murray also highlighted the importance of regional banks to the wider economy.

Ripple has increasingly promoted RLUSD, its dollar-pegged stablecoin, as a settlement asset for institutional transactions.

The company had not immediately clarified whether the Jeonbuk Bank service will use XRP or RLUSD.

That distinction is important because Ripple’s expanding institutional partnerships have yet to produce a comparable increase in XRP demand.

XRP Slides Despite Ripple Partnerships

XRP surged above $3 last year but has weakened throughout August, eventually dropping below the $1 level, according to CoinDesk data.

The decline has occurred even as Ripple continues expanding relationships with banks, asset managers and custodians.

The XRP Ledger also illustrates the growing role of RLUSD. Tokenized real-world assets on the network are worth approximately $1.38 billion, with RLUSD representing about $845 million.

That means RLUSD accounts for more than three-fifths of the total value of assets issued on the ledger.

Even with XRP trading near its lowest level in months, derivatives traders remain positioned for a recovery.

XRP futures open interest stood at around $2.78 billion this week. Binance data showed more than three long accounts for every short account, while OKX recorded a similar long-to-short ratio.

The bullish derivatives positioning comes as social-media sentiment around XRP has deteriorated, reaching its most negative level in roughly three months.