What signals has Ripple's new round of financing released?

Recently, Ripple made a big move: it raised $500 million, with a valuation of $40 billion. The investors are not small retail investors, but big players from TradFi like Fortress, Citadel Securities, and Pantera. What does this mean?

From a fundamental perspective: Ripple is no longer just focused on payments. Their current business lines include stablecoins (RLUSD has surpassed $1 billion in supply), high-end brokerage, asset custody, and enterprise financial software. The scale of their payment business has exceeded $95 billion. They completed 6 acquisitions within two years, and the pace of expansion is quite aggressive.

On-chain data is speaking: RLUSD's daily average trading volume in October reached 58 million, continuously breaking historical highs. The collateral of Ripple Prime's (the brand after acquiring Hidden Road) clients has doubled. This is not a fake number.

What does the market think? Analysts are starting to call XRP in double digits. Some predict it could increase tenfold based on historical altseason cycles, while others look at charts for support levels, believing that after breaking through $4, it could surge to $9 or even higher. Of course, these are conditional predictions—altseason really needs to arrive.

But don't get too excited: A valuation of 40 billion means that market expectations for Ripple are also rising. Slowing growth, compliance issues, and ineffective mergers and integrations will be ruthlessly assessed. Institutional investors are entering, and regulation will also become stricter.

What are the key factors? The adoption rate of RLUSD in the next few quarters, the synergistic effects of various merger and acquisition departments, and the new regulatory attitude in the United States. These are what will determine whether XRP can break through the ceiling.