Ripple formally launched XRP Asia in Seoul on Oct. 3 during XRP Seoul 2026 / Korea Blockchain Week at the Grand Hyatt Seoul Yongsan, according to RippleCoinNews (Tabassum Naiz) and Coinpedia live updates. A Special Announcement window (~2:15–2:35 p.m. local) introduced the regional arm meant to accelerate XRPL adoption across Asia with builders and banks. Sabrina Tachdjian (formerly Hedera Foundation VP of fintech/payments) was named president, with backing from Ripple, the XRPL Foundation, and XRPL Commons — modeled like Europe’s XRPL Commons. Tachdjian appeared on stage with Tatsuya Kohrogi.

Ripple president Monica Long, alongside Christina Chan, said the firm is “running credit-related pilots with the goal of activation next year” and will “activate lending protocols to use pooled XRP as collateral to fund a portion of customers’ payment needs.” Coinpedia also relayed Long’s projections that tokenized RWAs could grow from about $6 billion to $30 billion and AI-agent transactions from about 10 million to 100 million. Panels featured Woori, Kakao Bank, K Bank, Kyobo Securities, and JB Bank; JB Bank signed Ripple Payments for Southeast Asia remittances including Vietnam by mid-December. Protocol work: Batch and Permission Delegation are planned for early October.

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Conference / roadmap ≠ spot price catalyst

A regional launch and lending roadmap are institutional news — not an automatic spot catalyst. Credit-related pilots and “activation next year” language mean lending is not live on mainnet today. Live marks Saturday morning (~9:10 a.m. MT via Robinhood) put XRP near $1.49, BTC near $84,840, ETH near $2,681, SOL near $119.64. Not investment advice.

Sources