3 Things We Learned at Ripple Swell Last Week

Hey Lantern Community!

Last week, some of the Lantern team attended Ripple Swell in New York City! It was a conference bringing together institutional players, payment processors, and companies building on XRP.

It was action-packed. We met with the Ripple Labs team, caught up with investors, and saw firsthand where the XRP ecosystem is heading.

Here are the 3 most exciting takeaways we want to share with you.

But first, market update!

1. Cross-Border Payments Are Growing

We saw a lot of cross-border payment businesses at Swell, which makes sense, since XRP was originally created to be a replacement for SWIFT.

Why XRP works for payments:

• Settles in 3-5 seconds (vs. 3-5 days for SWIFT)

• Costs fractions of a cent per transaction

• Operates 24/7/365 (banks close on weekends)

Ripple just announced that their Payments platform has processed over $95 billion in volume.

Even more interesting: Ripple acquired stablecoin infrastructure company Rail earlier this year, combining RLUSD (Ripple's stablecoin) with XRP to create a full-service payments platform.

Bottom line: Ripple is building enterprise infrastructure.

2. Evernorth Is Building the "MicroStrategy for XRP"

The buzz at every conversation? Evernorth Holdings.

This Ripple-backed company just announced they've accumulated over $1 billion in XRP—making them the largest Digital Asset Treasury.

Here's what makes Evernorth interesting:

• They're buying XRP on public exchanges (creating real buying pressure)

• Planning a

  Nasdaq listing in Q1 2026 under ticker XRPN

• Not just holding—actively generating yield through lending and liquidity strategies

• Backed by former Ripple executives and strategic partners

Think MicroStrategy's playbook for Bitcoin, but purpose-built for XRP.

Asheesh Birla, CEO of Evernorth Holdings

Why this matters for XRP holders:

When MicroStrategy started accumulating Bitcoin in 2020, it legitimized BTC for institutions. Bitcoin was around $11,000 then. Today it's over $100,000.

Evernorth is doing the same for XRP—and they're just getting started. According to their filings, they plan to raise another $1 billion specifically to buy more XRP through 2026.

Smart XRP holders aren't selling into this institutional demand, but borrowing against their holdings instead.

3. Ripple Raised $500M at a $40 Billion Valuation

This dropped right before Swell ended.

Ripple announced a $500 million strategic investment at a $40 billion valuation from institutional heavyweights:

• Fortress Investment Group

• Citadel Securities

• Pantera Capital

• Galaxy Digital

• Brevan Howard

• Marshall Wace

This follows Ripple's $1 billion tender offer earlier this year at the same valuation.

What Ripple is building with this capital:

• Ripple Payments: $95B+ in volume processed

• Ripple Custody: Institutional-grade asset storage

• Ripple Prime: Multi-asset prime brokerage (recently acquired Hidden Road)

• RLUSD Stablecoin: Just crossed $1 billion market cap in under a year

The most interesting development? Ripple just acquired GTreasury, which manages trillions of dollars for Fortune 500 companies. These corporations want to use stablecoins and digital assets to move money 24/7 and put idle capital to work.

Translation: The world's largest companies are preparing to use XRP for treasury operations.

Why we built Lantern

Ripple Swell reinforced why we built Lantern: to give everyday holders access to the same strategies institutions use.

While companies like Evernorth deploy billions, you can use your crypto holdings the same way too: Collateral for liquidity, not as assets to sell.

Want to put your holdings to work?

Text us: (415) 365-0100 or check our calculator: https://lantern.finance/borrow

Until next time,

The Lantern Team

This newsletter is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Always consult with your financial advisor before making lending decisions.