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The cryptocurrency market entered the fourth quarter under pressure as Bitcoin failed to sustain a breakout above $85,500 despite softer U.S. inflation data. Bitcoin slipped back toward its September closing level and traded around $83,975.76, with market dominance at 58.74%. Ethereum hovered near $2,706.26, accounting for 11.50% of the market.
The reversal came as U.S. Treasury yields surged, with the 10-year yield climbing above 5.3%, its highest level since 2002. Stronger U.S. GDP growth, elevated oil prices and concerns over the federal budget deficit also supported the dollar, draining liquidity from risk assets.
The volatility triggered $290.63 million in cryptocurrency liquidations across 78,781 traders, according to CoinGlass. Long positions accounted for $147.48 million, while shorts lost $143.15 million. Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $148.69 million in net outflows, ending a nine-day inflow streak, while Ethereum ETFs shed $59.58 million.
Despite the broader crypto market weakness, activity on the XRP Ledger is accelerating. According to the t54 platform, XRPL has surpassed 10 million payments through the x402 protocol, reaching 10.8 million transactions. The network is currently processing roughly 500,000 such payments per day and supports 2,287 active payable services and APIs.
The x402 protocol enables autonomous AI agents to discover and pay for digital services without human intervention. Payments for AI inference, data access and financial APIs can be settled directly on XRPL using XRP or Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin, whose market capitalization has reached $2.49 billion.
XRPL is also expanding its role in real-world asset tokenization. Brazilian depository CSD BR is working on a pilot to mirror BTG Pactual fund shares on the ledger, targeting $15 billion in tokenized assets by year-end.
XRP nevertheless fell 1.28% to $1.4928, while XRP liquidations totaled $6.22 million. The market also absorbed the scheduled release of 1 billion XRP from escrow, worth roughly $1.49 billion. About 31.845 billion XRP remains in escrow, while 68.13 billion tokens are circulating.
