Ripple hooks big fish

Institutional interest surges

The recent growth of Ripple’s XRP Ledger is turning more than a few heads. The Ledger’s origins date back to 2011 when engineers David Schwartz, Jed McCaleb and Arthur Britto decided they wanted to create one that was built specifically for payments. The best part of two decades later, Ripple is moving well beyond its initial cross-border model. After years of scepticism from the traditional finance sector, support for the XRP Ledger is now surging among the very institutions that once dismissed it. Even real-world assets like US Treasuries are growing on what increasingly looks to be a winning ticket for the blockchain-based digital payments company.

Sidechain goes mainstream

There are several developments that have led to this uptick in institutional support and corresponding Ripple to USD price buoyancy. At the top of the list is the XRP Ledger’s EVM Sidechain. This is a blockchain that runs parallel to the mainnet and is noted for integrating the LeRdger’s low-cost transaction benefits with the smart contract functionality of Ethereum, the world’s second-biggest cryptocurrency. Ethereum is by far and away the most widely used smart-contract blockchain for decentralised finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NTFs), gaming projects and numerous other applications. Ripple’s “best-of-both-worlds” approach with the EVM Sidechain offers enormous scope for the development of decentralised apps (dApps) for tokenisation, lending and payments on a platform that is as safe and scalable as it is fast. Schwartz says the XRPL EVM Sidechain introduces a flexible environment for developers to deploy EVM-based applications while maintaining a connection to the XRPL's efficiency. He adds that the sidechain extends the capabilities of the ecosystem without changing the fundamentals that drive the XRP Ledger’s reliability.

Steady and ready

The growth of the Ripple USD stablecoin is another factor driving institutional interest. A year after launch, the stablecoin had achieved a market value of more than a billion dollars. Stablecoins are designed to sustain a stable value. What stands out about them is that they are pegged to an external asset such as a recognised commodity or fiat currency. There is far greater trust among investors because they are linked to assets they know and understand. Seeing governments embracing the Ripple USD stablecoin instils further confidence. A good example can be found in the United Arab Emirates, where Abu Dhabi’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority [https://www.adgm.com/financial-services-regulatory-authority] has recognised it as an accepted fiat-referenced token. Partnerships in the broader financial sector have offered further encouragement. In late 2025 Ripple teamed up with Mastercard, consumer and small business credit product issuer WebBank and crypto exchange heavyweight Gemini to investigate the possible use of Ripple USD on the XRP Ledger to support stablecoin settlement of currency card transactions.

Bridging the gap

As volatile as crypto markets may be, when the words “Ripple” and “global finance” are used in the same sentence it can no longer be denied that the gap between digital and traditional transactions is narrowing. There is still a long way to go in this process but there is little question that the foundation has been laid. And, at least for the foreseeable future, Ripple is the preferred building block. WORD COUNT: 528