According to Ripple executives, the company is quietly pushing XRP to transform from a cross-border payment tool into an underlying collateral asset for institutional-grade decentralized finance (DeFi News). This strategic adjustment is seen as a key turning point in XRP's development history, potentially profoundly changing how Wall Street uses crypto-native infrastructure.
The core of this transformation is the native lending protocol being launched on the XRPL (XRP Ledger). This protocol positions XRP as a collateralizable asset for the first time, allowing users to borrow and lend using XRP as collateral, thereby participating in yield-generating activities. This functionality was previously dominated by the Ethereum ecosystem, but now XRP is expected to break its monopoly and open up new liquidity scenarios.
Ripple spokesperson Edwards pointed out that XRP can not only directly participate in on-chain financial activities as collateral, but also indirectly drive the transaction activity of the entire ecosystem, forming a positive cycle of "collateralization - lending - yield".
However, to achieve institutional-grade applications, XRP alone is not enough. Edwards emphasized that stablecoins are an indispensable part of this architecture. Without stable assets pegged to fiat currencies, the on-chain real-world assets (such as bonds and notes) held by institutions cannot be instantly realized. Traditional banking systems are difficult to meet the efficiency required by DeFi News due to cumbersome KYC, AML, and clearing processes.
To this end, Ripple has launched its own stablecoin, RLUSD, which aims to become a key hub in the institutional-grade asset tokenization market. RLUSD will support 24/7 asset exchange, on-chain dividends, and large-scale lending operations, breaking down the final barrier between traditional finance and on-chain finance.
Edwards said that the market's focus has fundamentally changed: two years ago, Ripple was still persuading financial institutions "whether it is worth putting assets on the chain"; now, the focus of discussion has shifted to "how to make on-chain assets continuously generate income, achieve instant settlement, and operate around the clock".
For XRP holders, this means that the value of their assets is no longer limited to cross-border payment scenarios, but is gradually becoming a core underlying asset supporting institutional-grade financial innovation, with potential far exceeding early perceptions.