An entity deeply affiliated with Ripple was shortlisted for several recognitions at one of the industry’s most respected hedge fund award ceremonies.

XRP has entered green territory over the past week, while the recent behavior of the whales and renewed interest from institutional investors signal that the bears may lose even more ground in the short-term.

The Prestigious Nominations

The Hedgeweek US Awards – annual industry honors recognizing top-performing hedge funds and leading service providers across the United States – will take place on October 8 in New York.

The nominated companies have been announced, and interestingly, Ripple Prime was included in four of the categories: Prime Broker of the Year: Client Service, Prime Broker of the Year: Technology, Prime Broker of the Year: Specialist Markets, and Prime Broker of the Year: Start-up & Emerging Managers. Competition for the entity will include well-known brokerage firms such as Mirae Asset Securities and Interactive Brokers.

Speaking on the matter was Ripple Prime’s CEO Mike Higgins, who thanked all clients and partners for their “continued trust” in the platform, its solution, and services. He also noted that voting for winners is open.

Whales Are Back

Another recent Ripple-related development is the evident return of big XRP investors. As CryptoPotato reported, whales and sharks holding between 100,000 and 100 million tokens each have added almost 3% more coins to their bags in the past five weeks. At the same time, smaller players (those owning less than 0.01 XRP) have reduced their exposure.

“Historically, XRP price has tended to move more with key stakeholders and against the smallest retail wallets, so this split supports the bullish case behind the bounce,” the analytics platform Santiment explained.

The ETF Front

Institutional investors have also shown renewed appetite toward XRP. SoSoValue’s data shows that lately spot XRP ETFs have attracted millions of dollars of capital, with the last red day being July 8. The past trading week was also in the green, with roughly $7 million in net inflows. However, four out of the five trading days saw no reportable action, which raised some eyebrows.

The launch of these products was highly anticipated across the community, and the first one (which has 100% exposure to the asset) saw the light of day in November 2025. Its issuer is Canary Capital, while prominent companies like Franklin Templeton, 21Shares, Grayscale, and Bitwise followed shortly after. Since day 1, these investment vehicles have generated a cumulative total net inflow of almost $1.5 billion.

XRP Price Outlook

The asset is currently worth around $1.14, representing a 3% increase on a weekly scale. Whale activity and interest in spot ETFs only reinforce the scenario shared by many analysts that XRP is poised for more substantial gains in the short term.

Earlier this week, Ali Martinez labeled $1.13 a level of huge importance, claiming a decisive breakout above could open the door for further upside to as high as $1.30. He later confirmed the setup, saying that XRP has cleared resistance, but the token remains sideways around that line as of press time.

Cryptollica also chipped in. A few days ago, the analyst argued that “there is no better opportunity” than XRP right now, stating that it has reached an all-time low oversold level.

Source: CryptoPotato