This Week In Crypto – X, XRP, Solana, and World

Gm frens, welcome back to another fast-moving week in crypto. There’s plenty to unpack.

X Cashtags drive an estimated $1 billion surge in trading, wrapped XRP goes live on Solana, a trader turns $2,500 into $500K on the ASTEROID memecoin, and World rolls out a major upgrade with Zoom, Tinder, and DocuSign integrations. We also look at renewed XRP price speculation and Zypto’s latest expansion into TRON DeFi with SunSwap integration.

Let’s dive in.

X Cashtags trigger estimated $1 billion surge in crypto trading

Social media platform X has already generated roughly $1 billion in trading volume from its new Cashtags feature, which allows users to view stock and crypto data directly from the app.

In a post on X on Friday, the company’s head of product, Nikita Bier, said the trading milestone was reached just 48 hours after the social media platform introduced Smart Cashtags, citing data aggregated from X’s trading pilot.

Cashtags allows users to select a specific asset or smart contract address when posting a ticker, and tapping a tag displays live price charts and related posts.

A pilot integration with Canadian brokerage Wealthsimple also enables direct trading from the timeline. However, the pilot remains limited in scope. Only iPhone users in the US and Canada have access, and the buy button is not yet active for US users. Android and web support have not yet rolled out.

The Cashtags rollout comes as X prepares to launch its broader payments platform, X Money, a peer-to-peer payments system that seeks to offer yield-bearing accounts, a cashback debit card, and other perks. Elon Musk stated in March that early public access would begin in April.

Since xAI was formed just 30 months ago, the small and talented team has made remarkable progress. Polymarket data currently shows a 36% chance that X money will launch by April 30, suggesting most traders remain skeptical.

Senator Elizabeth Warren has also raised concerns about the platform’s proposed 6% APY and potential stablecoin issuance, requesting Musk provide a written response by April 21.

Over the last few years, X has secured money transmitter licenses in more than 40 US states and registered with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to enable peer-to-peer payments on the platform.

Wrapped XRP goes live on Solana

Solana has confirmed that wrapped XRP [wXRP] is now live on its network. This enables XRP holders to access decentralized finance [DeFi] applications beyond the XRP Ledger for the first time. 

The rollout, facilitated by Hex Trust and LayerZero, enables XRP to be used within Solana’s DeFi ecosystem while remaining 1:1 backed by the native asset. According to the announcement, wXRP enables users to bridge XRP onto Solana and interact with DeFi protocols. This includes lending, trading, and liquidity provision. 

The 1:1-backed wXRP can then be used in DeFi protocols on Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) blockchains like the Ethereum mainnet, Optimism, or Hyper EVM, all of which have more robust DeFi ecosystems than the native XRP Ledger.

According to data from DefiLlama, Ethereum and Solana rank first and second in DeFi total value locked (TVL), at $57.2 billion and $6.08 billion, respectively. Meanwhile, XRP Ledger ranks 41st, with just $51.46 million in DeFi TVL.

In addition to the $1.2 million in wXRP on Solana, 50 million tokens, or around $74.5 million worth of wXR, have been minted on Ethereum. Almost all of those tokens have been in the same Ethereum wallet, one likely connected to the token issuer, since early November, before the wXRP announcement.

This marks a shift for XRP, which has historically been used primarily for payments and transfers on the XRP Ledger. Up till now, it has had limited exposure to DeFi activity.

By introducing a wrapped version of Solana, XRP holders can now deploy capital across a wider range of on-chain applications without converting their holdings into other assets.

The integration highlights a growing trend in the crypto market, where assets are increasingly being moved across chains to access different ecosystems and yield opportunities.

Solana, which has positioned itself as a hub for high-speed, low-cost DeFi activity, stands to benefit from additional liquidity as XRP enters its ecosystem. At the same time, the institutional study and cross-chain infrastructure aim to address security concerns often associated with wrapped assets.

Trader turns $2,500 to $500K on ASTEROID memecoin

A meme coin trader turned 1 Ethereum (ETH) or around $2,455 into nearly $500,000 on Thursday after trading the surging Asteroid (ASTEROID) meme coin on the Ethereum network.

The token, which is based on a Shiba Inu mascot named Asteroid, skyrocketed early on Friday following a social media post from media personality Glenn Beck, which earned a reply from X owner and SpaceX and Tesla founder, Elon Musk.

Beck’s post highlighted the story of Liv Perotto, a teenage girl who he said maintained a list of questions for Musk, but passed away from cancer in January without the chance to get them answered.

Her final question would have asked Musk if Asteroid, the Shiba Inu mascot she created to act as the zero-g indicator for SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission in 2024, could become the face of SpaceX.

“Will answer shortly,” Musk said in his reply to Beck’s post around 11:50 p.m. ET on Thursday. That post has now garnered more than 1.3 million views on X.

Eight minutes later, an Ethereum address ending in “EFF99af” bought 1 ETH worth of ASTEROID tokens, which were first launched on Ethereum 19 months ago. The buy was good enough for more than 10 billion ASTEROID tokens.

As renewed attention bloomed around Perotto and Asteroid with Musk’s reply, a massive surge in the meme coin ensued, quickly making the trader’s portfolio worth nearly $500,000.

At this time, “EFF9af” is the top trader on the token according to DEXScreener’s top traders tab, locking in more than $242,000 in profits with sales while maintaining a stash of just around $180,000 worth of ASTEROID tokens.

Two other traders, “6E5Eae” and “9dE8db,” both purchased less than $10,000 worth of ASTEROID tokens, and have similarly locked in more than $150,000 in gains via sales.

The token has generated more than $43 million in 24-hour trading volume, making it the second-most-traded meme coin across blockchains in the last 24 hours, per DEXScreener.

World launches upgrade with Zoom, Tinder, and DocuSign

World, formerly Worldcoin, unveiled a major World ID upgrade on Friday, introducing account-based architecture for “proof of human” verification alongside new integrations with Tinder, Zoom, and DocuSign.

OpenAI, which OpenAI CEO Sam Altman co-founded, introduced the World ID app as a dedicated experience for managing and using proof-of-human verification across the internet. The standalone application represents a shift from the company’s previous wallet-integrated approach to identity verification.

The company is arguably best known for its iris-scanning Orb device, which scans and verifies humans for use across an array of online applications. World incentivized use of the Orb with its Worldcoin (WLD) crypto token, but has expanded its proof-of-human suite to include other forms of verification.

The company also launched Concert Kit on Friday, a tool powered by World ID that enables artists to reserve tickets for verified humans. The platform aims to combat bot-driven ticket scalping by requiring human verification for event access, as Grammy-winning musician Anderson. Paak appeared at Friday’s event to help reveal the technology.

World and Vercel are teaming to bring human-in-the-loop verification to developers building on Vercel’s new open-source Workflow SDK. Okta plans to build Human Principal, a product that allows API builders to verify whether a human stands behind an agent.

Match Group, Tinder’s parent company, is expanding its existing World partnership to serve U.S. users, while World announced business-centric agreements with Zoom and DocuSign.

Zoom, the video meeting app, will integrate World’s deepfake detection technology to try and spot fakes, with fund manager VanEck among firms currently trialing the tech. Meanwhile, DocuSign will offer World ID support to ensure that whoever is supposed to sign a document digitally is actually the person they claim to be.

Did Ripple predict $50 XRP in 2026? 

The XRP price prediction for 2026 conversation resurfaced with renewed intensity after Crypto Dyl News published a post on April 13, questioning whether Ripple had implicitly indicated a $50 valuation for XRP this year. 

The post draws a direct line between Ripple’s $33 trillion projection for global stablecoin volume and projected token price outcomes. This connection reinvigorated the Ripple XRP price prediction debate across investor communities. Both the XRP $50 prediction and the broader assessment of whether XRP is a good investment in 2026 are now subjects of considerable market discussion.

The Ripple $33 trillion projection quantifies total global stablecoin trading volume from the prior year, a metric that Garlinghouse presented on Fox Business on March 27, 2026, to underscore the scale of payment infrastructure that has yet to integrate blockchain technology. 

Ripple Treasury, acquired for approximately $1 billion in 2025, processed $13 trillion institutional payments that year without deploying a single stablecoin or crypto asset across those flows. The XRP price prediction 2026 models citing this figure treat it as a proxy for future token demand, a significant interpretative leap from its original context.

Various XRP price prediction 2026 models targeting $50 engineer backward projections by applying a market share percentage to that $33 trillion stablecoin, working through assumptions about XRP’s role as a bridge asset. The math is also easy to follow, but the assumptions underneath it are not.

Reaching $50 would require XRP’s market cap to surpass $3 trillion, more than double Bitcoin’s current valuation. Ripple’s CTO Emeritus, David Schwartz, addressed the $50 XRP prediction in late January; he stopped short of ruling it out but made his skepticism clear. 

His core argument: rational investors wouldn’t let XRP trade around $1.37 if they genuinely believed it even had a 10% chance of reaching $50 to $100 in a few years. Standard Chartered’s Geoffrey Kendrick put out the most-referenced institutional forecast right now: $8 for 2026 and $28 by 2030, still $22 short of $50.

Several key factors further complicate the Ripple XRP price prediction picture, most notably, institutional settlement currently routes through RLUSD and fiat channels rather than XRP directly. On-demand Liquidity, the mechanism that actually drives XRP demand, hasn’t scaled enough to affect these projections at the time of writing meaningfully.

Zypto expands in-app DeFi swaps via SunSwap DEX integration

Zypto has expanded its decentralized finance offering with the integration of SunSwap, enabling in-app swapping of TRX and TRC20 tokens through a decentralized exchange on the TRON network. The update strengthens Zypto’s growing network of DEX and cross-chain integrations, allowing users to access decentralized liquidity and move assets across chains without leaving the app environment.

The platform combines multichain self custody wallets with access to more than 24,000 digital assets across over 20 blockchains, alongside more than 1 million cross-chain swap routes. As a multifunctional app, Zypto brings together decentralized swaps, payments, spending, and asset protection within a single interface, reflecting a broader shift away from fragmented crypto tools toward integrated environments.

Zypto has continued to expand its feature set at pace, with recent updates spanning DeFi access, transaction handling, onboarding, and card functionality. The addition of SunSwap deepens the TRON layer within this system, connecting decentralized swaps with existing payment rails that support real-world use cases such as bill payments, mobile top-ups, and card-based spending.

While still a relatively young entrant, Zypto is increasingly positioning itself alongside more established platforms by delivering a comparable breadth of functionality within a single application. As competition intensifies, the ability to combine DeFi, cross-chain movement, and everyday utility in one place is emerging as a key differentiator.

Find out more here.

Closing remark

X sees more than 550 million users each month, positioning it as one of the largest social media platforms globally and enabling it to compete with established financial information providers in delivering market-related content and data.

While the long-term adoption of wXRP will depend on user uptake and liquidity depth, the launch signals continued efforts to reduce fragmentation across blockchain networks.

World’s launch comes as Worldcoin’s network has reached 18 million verified humans across 160 countries. The timing reflects the growing urgency around human verification as a growing share of internet traffic comes from AI chatbots, agents, and bots.

Whether XRP is a good investment hinges on how Ripple’s $33 trillion projection translates into token demand, and whether the CLARITY Act accelerates the institutional inflows needed to close the gap.

With the integration of SunSwap, Zypto App is strengthening its decentralized swap capabilities while continuing to connect multichain self custody wallets, cross-chain movement, and real-world utility within a single, multifunctional application.

There’s so much to unpack this week, so what’s your favorite news story?