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Ripple XRP/USD mopped healthy gains Thursday after leading derivatives trading platform Chicago Mercantile Exchange launched new reference rates and real-time indices for the payments-focused cryptocurrency.

What Happened: The CME Group announced Thursday that starting July 29, it would add XRP to its existing suite of benchmarks which already includes major assets like Bitcoin BTC/USD , Ethereum ETH/USD , and Solana SOL/USD .

The CME reference rate and real-time indices ensure transparency and replicability to the U.S. dollar price of the respective cryptocurrency.

Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, cheered the development and termed the presence of a reliable benchmark reference rate as a prerequisite to institutional cryptocurrency products.

Price Action: XRP surged 2% in the last 24 hours, outperforming gains of Bitcoin and Ethereum, according to data from Benzinga Pro. It is exchanging hands at $0.4499 at the time of writing.

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Why It Matters: Given it's the year of spot exchange-traded funds, Garlinghouse's comments could be construed as a hint towards similar products for XRP.

Earlier in May, he predicted that the creation of spot ETFs for XRP, among other major currencies, is imminent.

Ripple has been locked in a tense legal battle with the SEC over XRP's security question. Though the company secured a major victory a year ago, the price of XRP has lagged behind the broader market, sinking 43% since the court ruling.

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