Jesse from Apex Crypto Insights recently spoke about the current state of Ripple's progress at the XRP Las Vegas event. According to him, Ripple has been connecting banks to its network at a rate of two to three per week for eight years, which he believes is significantly more than what is publicly disclosed.
The actual number of integrations is likely much higher, as Ripple's presence on the ISO 20022 governance body gives it a strong position in the industry. This messaging standard underpins Swift, leading some to question the narrative that Swift and Ripple are competitors. Instead, Jesse sees them as complementary services.
XRP's price has been relatively low despite having thousands of active partnerships and ongoing infrastructure buildout. One reason for this is that payment corridors have not yet been activated at scale, with banks connected but transaction flows still off. Whether this is a matter of timing or deliberate price suppression is unclear.