Ripple’s ‘North Star’ XRP Records 10 Million Agentic Payments Milestone Amid AI Boom: Main Crypto News Morning

The cryptocurrency market opens the fourth quarter with a local retreat by the bulls. An attempt to establish a new trend above $85,500 on the back of softer morning PCE inflation data (3.4%), which came in below expectations, resulted in a false breakout. Bitcoin quickly lost momentum, returning to its September closing level ($83,600), and is now trading around $83,975.76, with dominance of 58.74%. Ethereum has settled near $2,706.26, with a market share of 11.50%.

The main trigger behind this “whipsaw” is the U.S. debt shock. The yield on 10-year Treasuries broke above 5.3%, its highest level since 2002. Against the backdrop of a revision of U.S. second-quarter GDP growth to +2.2%, expensive oil, and the budget deficit, the U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) rose sharply and pulled liquidity out of risk assets. 

The result: liquidations affecting 78,781 traders and totalling $290.63 million (longs lost $147.48 million, shorts $143.15 million) as per CoinGlass. The funds’ nine-day green streak has ended: yesterday’s net outflow from spot BTC ETFs totalled $148,690,000, while ETH ETFs lost $59,580,000. Against this backdrop, Citigroup’s morning forecast, which raised its 12-month BTC target to $113,000 and its ETH target to $3,028, looks detached from reality.

While speculators count their macroeconomic losses, the real tectonic activity has shifted to infrastructure. The main theme of the morning is the tight symbiosis between Web3 and artificial intelligence: Ripple’s “North Star,” the XRP Ledger, has reached a historic milestone of 10 million agent payments. This breakthrough, driven by the global AI boom, clearly shows how the autonomous “machine economy” creates liquidity channels independent of the Fed.

Micropayments for robots and a $15 billion pilot. What is happening with XRP while the market is in turmoil

According to the t54 platform, the XRP Ledger (XRPL) network has surpassed 10 million payments through the x402 protocol, with a total transaction count of 10.8 million. The pace of adoption is phenomenal: the journey from 1 million to 10 million took less than three months, and the network’s current pace is 500,000 payments daily. Growth in activity is supported by scaling: the system tracks 2,287 live payable services and APIs, while the market capitalization of the native stablecoin RLUSD has reached $2.49 billion.

The x402 protocol itself is an open, HTTP-native technology that allows autonomous AI agents to discover and pay for digital services without any human involvement. Micropayments for generation (inference), data access, and credit and financial APIs are settled instantly and directly on XRPL in XRP or RLUSD. The t54 platform functions here as a neutral trust layer for machine-to-machine transactions, backed by Ripple and Franklin Templeton.

Real-world asset tokenization has also received a new boost. A pilot project with Brazilian depository CSD BR to mirror shares in BTG Pactual funds on XRPL (the “digital twins” model) aims to issue $15 billion in tokenized assets by the end of the year. This potentially puts the XRP ledger among the RWA sector’s leaders, although CSD BR’s books remain the legal register. 

Market experts openly wonder why, against this backdrop, XRP’s price is falling 1.28% to $1.4928 (dominance of 3.28%), while total XRP liquidation losses amount to a modest $6.22 million.

The market also ignored the scheduled release of 1 billion XRP from escrow accounts in tranches of 100M, 200M, 300M, and 400M, with a nominal value of around $1.49 billion. A total of 31.845 billion coins remains in escrow, with 68.13 billion in circulation.

Not just speculation. How AI activity is turning into real crypto infrastructure

The current AI boom has clearly divided the sector into utility infrastructure for robots and pure speculative noise. A stark imbalance is emerging in the commercial segment of AI tokens: NEAR Protocol is the sole leader ($5.12–$5.46, with a market capitalization of $6.7–$6.8 billion), having posted strong gains over the week and month. 

The real shock came from Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev’s report at the HOOD Summit in Houston, explaining the fundamental side of the AI trend. While AI agents on XRPL increase payment volumes, developers are building a liquid environment in which they can operate. Launched just two months ago, Robinhood Chain has taken first place in developer activity, with developers creating “financial Legos” based on RWA.

Daily trading volumes for perpetual futures (perps) in partnership with Lighter and spot DEXs within Robinhood Chain have simultaneously exceeded $1 billion each. Using Robinhood Ventures as an underwriter, the company is preparing to tokenize shares in private companies. 

The goal is to expand the lineup from 200 stock tokens to several thousand, giving retail investors and future AI participants in the economy around the world (from Ecuador to Eastern Europe) direct access to digitized U.S. capital.

At the same time, the AI boom has also revealed a destructive side: researchers at Transluce recorded an attempt by autonomous AI agents to hack a Canadian government website (Library and Archives Canada). 

The hack failed, but experts at Asymmetric Security identified activity by AI models on at least 55 websites (including the SEC, CDC, the International Energy Agency, and Australian government resources), where the bots used private accounts and temporary email addresses and wiped logs to hide their tracks.

A black September for security, BitMart’s collapse, and the departure of “Crypto Mom” from the SEC. What awaits the market in October

According to CoinGlass, Bitcoin closed the third quarter up 42.71%, breaking September’s negative trend with a 6.33% gain. The historical average return for “Uptober” is +18.52%, with only three negative monthly closes in its history.

The seasonal improvement coincided with a record in cyber threats: in September, hackers stole $766.49 million from crypto companies, up 462% compared to August. Pressure on the sector’s infrastructure is mounting as companies face insolvency, as BitMart officially acknowledged in court that it is insolvent, revealing a $319.5 million balance-sheet deficit it had concealed since 2021 amid panic withdrawals. Affected users will be offered Restitution and Continuum tokens. 

Local incidents were reported at MetaMask, where rewards from 18 validators were redirected, and at the Grayscale Zcash ETF, which saw $30.25 million in outflows and forced ZEC liquidations totalling $14.55 million. 

To top it off, Commissioner Hester Peirce leaves the SEC on October 2, leaving the agency with just two sitting members ahead of the October 20 comment deadline for Regulation of Crypto Assets.

What to watch during trading on October 2:

• Ripple’s re-escrow and exchange deadlines: Confirmation that most of the 1 billion XRP has been locked back into escrow, the reopening of withdrawals on Bitget, and the response of BitMart’s top 50 clients to its rescue plan.
• BTC holding its levels: Defending the 82,000–83,000 boundary after ETF outflows, amid U.S. Treasury yields above 5.3% and a strong DXY.
• On-chain metrics: Sustained volumes on Robinhood Chain (> $2 billion) and validator support on XRPL (>80%) for the Permission Delegation and Batch soft forks.

October started without a change in regime. The push toward $85,000 faltered under pressure from the debt market, but the industry’s focus shifted from price speculation to on-chain metrics. The XRP unlock did not crash the price, as the launch of the $15 billion RWA pilot with CSD BR, inclusion in the Cryptex ETF, and 10 million AI-agent payments through t54 carry fundamental weight. 

Against the backdrop of Robinhood Chain’s explosive growth, the crypto sector is clearing out bankruptcies such as BitMart and preparing for a historically strong Uptober despite the external turmoil.