Ripple Valued at $50 Billion, So Why Is XRP’s Outlook Still Unclear?

Since its founding in 2012, Ripple has become one of the most successful blockchain companies. In an employee share buyback in March 2026, its valuation reached $50 billion, surpassing Coinbase’s (COIN) market capitalization at the time. As a private company, this comparison is imperfect, but it still illustrates Ripple’s growth and the strong interest in its stock. Ripple is also the largest holder of XRP (XRP) and its main corporate backer, but interestingly, this cryptocurrency has not shared in Ripple’s success. Ripple provides valuable products for financial institutions, while XRP’s outlook is more ambiguous.

Banks Adopt Ripple, but Not Necessarily XRP

Ripple is a fintech company that provides blockchain and crypto solutions for commercial institutions, and its main product is the Ripple payments network. This network uses the XRP Ledger (XRPL) to complete cross-border payments in 3 to 5 seconds, with fees amounting to only a fraction of less than $0.01. XRP is the native token of the XRPL and is used to pay transaction fees, and Ripple also designed it as an on-demand liquidity and bridge currency so that financial institutions can send international payments without needing other currencies.

However, banks can use Ripple’s payments network without using XRP. Although there is no exact number of banks currently using the network, Ripple once announced that it had more than 300 customers in 2019, among which only a few confirmed the use of XRP, including SBI Remit and Travelex Bank.

Other Uses of XRP

XRP’s role in the Ripple payments network is not its entirety. The XRPL also provides a platform for decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and real-world asset (RWA) tokenization. Although both are legitimate uses of blockchain technology, the XRPL is not a major player in either field. According to DefiLlama data, the total value locked in DeFi protocols on the XRPL is less than $50 million, trailing more than 40 other blockchains. Ethereum dominates with about $50 billion in TVL, and Solana ranks second with about $6 billion. The XRPL performs slightly better in RWA, ranking tenth with about $460 million in distributed RWA, but it still lags far behind leading blockchains, including Ethereum with $17 billion in total value. Considering that the XRPL’s primary use is as a payments token, it is unlikely to gain significant market share in these areas.

ODL Transactions Do Not Generate Net Demand, and RLUSD May Replace XRP

The bullish fundamental argument for XRP is that as banks adopt Ripple’s technology, especially for cross-border payments, it will create enormous demand pressure on the token. This narrative is simple and clear, but the truth is more complex. First, most of the major institutional partners in the headlines use Ripple’s messaging layer, which has nothing to do with XRP. Many investors have already understood this and have focused on the company’s cross-border payments infrastructure, once known as on-demand liquidity (ODL), as the main demand lever. Suppose a bank in the United States wants to send money to a bank in France. U.S. dollars are converted into XRP at one end, and at the other end of the same transaction, XRP is converted into euros and deposited into the French bank account. Here, XRP acts as a “bridge asset.” This does create some demand pressure, because market makers need to hold enough XRP to form a liquid market, but the transaction itself is neutral in terms of demand, as XRP is bought and sold in nearly equal amounts at almost the same time at both ends of the transaction.

The demand pressure that ODL does create is under threat, and not from competition. Ripple’s own U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin RLUSD can also be used for cross-border transactions and could become the preferred bridge asset. RLUSD has one major advantage over XRP for financial institutions: stability. Banks are generally unwilling to handle highly volatile assets like XRP, even if only briefly holding them. RLUSD offers essentially the same benefits without the risk. Ripple itself seems to be aware of this, as the company has made major strategic acquisitions to build its stablecoin infrastructure and has placed RLUSD rather than XRP at the center of most messaging and branding.

Conclusion

Ripple’s success as a blockchain company is beyond doubt, but its fate is not tied to XRP. Banks adopt the Ripple payments network without using XRP, ODL transactions do not generate net demand, and Ripple’s own stablecoin RLUSD is more likely to become the bridge asset for cross-border payments. XRP’s price relies more on speculative narratives than on actual payment mechanisms, and as the market gradually recognizes this reality, its valuation faces downward pressure. For XRP, holding may be the more rational choice at present.

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Source: nai500.com