In response to recent critiques from SWIFT’s Chief Innovation Officer, Tom Zschach, who labeled XRP as a “dead chain walking,” the XRP Ledger (XRPL) community has shown resilience through strategic development initiatives aimed at expanding its utility. Zschach emphasized that “neutral, shared governance” is essential for institutional adoption, a contrast to Ripple’s centralized model. He argued that compliance must be a collective effort rather than reliant on a single entity. His comments reflect a growing sentiment in traditional finance that stablecoins and other blockchain networks, such as Circle’s USDC, are better positioned to support future settlement systems.

Despite these criticisms, the XRP Ledger has continued to introduce upgrades aimed at stimulating on-chain activity and enterprise adoption. One such initiative is the implementation of Automated Market Makers (AMMs) with new liquidity pools, enhancing the network’s DeFi capabilities. Additionally, Ripple launched its USD-backed stablecoin, RLUSD, and supported the deployment of Circle’s native USDC on XRPL. These moves are part of broader efforts to improve interoperability with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) through an EVM sidechain, which aims to attract developers and projects from the Ethereum ecosystem to the XRP Ledger.

The XRP Ledger also continues to attract real-world assets (RWAs), with its RWA market cap reaching $131.6 million by the end of Q2 2025, driven by high-profile tokenized assets like Ondo’s OUSG, Guggenheim’s digital commercial paper, and Ctrl Alt’s real estate tokens [3]. These developments highlight the growing interest in the XRP Ledger as a platform for tokenizing traditional financial instruments, despite the overall decline in daily active addresses and new wallet creation during the same period.

Notably, the XRP Ledger’s NFT activity saw a significant rebound in Q2 2025, with daily average transactions surging 226.9% due to a tenfold increase in NFT minting. This uptick was attributed to the resurgence of the NFTokenMint transaction type, which had previously seen a similar surge in late 2024. By quarter-end, the XLS-20 standard had facilitated the minting of nearly 13.5 million NFTs, with 3.4 million of those minted in Q2 2025 alone [3]. This activity underscores the XRP Ledger’s growing appeal for NFT creation and trading, particularly for developers and creators seeking fast and low-cost minting solutions.

While the XRP Ledger faces challenges in competing with Ethereum, Solana, and other major DeFi platforms—XRPL’s total value locked (TVL) stood at $87.85 million, compared to Ethereum’s $96.9 billion—Ripple’s focus on enterprise blockchain adoption and RWA tokenization suggests a different trajectory than the DeFi-centric approach of its peers. Ripple’s development roadmap includes continued upgrades to incentivize on-chain activity and attract enterprise users, with a focus on expanding RLUSD’s usage and building out infrastructure for tokenized assets [4].

Looking ahead, the potential approval of XRP-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs) could further catalyze demand for the asset. Analysts predict that spot XRP ETFs could attract over $5 billion in inflows within their first month of trading, with some estimates projecting even higher figures [6]. These predictions are based on the strong demand seen for existing XRP exchange-traded products and the growing interest from institutional investors. However, XRP’s current market capitalization of $168 billion remains a subject of debate, as the revenue generated by RippleNet—Ripple’s international payment system—remains relatively modest compared to its valuation [5].

In summary, while SWIFT’s critique highlights ongoing challenges for Ripple’s decentralized finance ambitions, the XRP Ledger’s strategic focus on enterprise adoption, RWA tokenization, and NFTs indicates a multifaceted approach to building long-term utility. With the potential for ETF approval and continued development of key infrastructure, the XRP Ledger remains a significant player in the evolving blockchain landscape.

Source:

[1] title1 (https://cryptopotato.com/xrp-ledger-hits-record-rwa-market-cap-as-big-players-join-the-blockchain-boom/) [2] title2 (https://finance.yahoo.com/news/now-xrp-dead-next-swift-105438346.html) [5] title6 (https://finance.yahoo.com/news/xrp-breakout-horizon-121900321.html) [6] title8 (https://finance.yahoo.com/news/xrp-etf-approval-seen-unlock-121250497.html)