Mastercard has joined the upcoming XRP Ledger Hackathon in New York as a sponsor, expanding its engagement with Ripple-linked infrastructure beyond a developer event. The 36-hour hackathon will run Oct. 24–25, immediately before Ripple’s Swell conference, and cover protocol development, agentic finance and lending. In June, Mastercard said it would extend settlement capabilities to regulated stablecoins, including Ripple USD (RLUSD), across networks including the XRP Ledger. Mastercard, Ripple, WebBank and Gemini have also announced an exploration of RLUSD-based settlement for card transactions on XRPL, though the project is not a confirmed commercial rollout. XRP has since retreated from its Aug. 22 high of $1.70, trading around $1.38–$1.39 on Aug. 29 after touching approximately $1.36. The decline came despite roughly 190 million XRP being accumulated by large holders in one day during the earlier breakout and XRP Ledger activity approaching 1.9 million daily transactions. U.S. spot XRP ETFs have provided some support, recording approximately $1.55 billion in cumulative net inflows and attracting $39.78 million during their strongest week in more than three months, including $18.38 million on one Friday. A move above $1.43–$1.45 would improve the short-term structure, while a break below $1.36 could expose $1.30. Mastercard’s growing XRPL presence strengthens the institutional-use narrative but does not guarantee higher XRP prices; ETF demand, the $1.36 support zone and broader crypto-market conditions are likely to shape whether the August rally resumes.