Investment firm VanEck has identified the XRP Ledger as a public blockchain network capable of competing with financial settlement giants like SWIFT and the DTCC, adding to a series of developments that have seen on-chain transactions grow 65 percent year-over-year. The analysis comes as institutional adoption gains traction, with the token (XRP) trading near $1.4600 as of May 12.
"VanEck’s assessment describes XRPL as a network that could compete for part of the settlement activity currently handled by SWIFT, DTCC, and private banking rails," the asset manager’s report stated. The firm highlighted the ledger's potential as a settlement layer for markets that require near-instant asset transfers and the ability to operate outside traditional banking hours, a key feature for the tokenization of real-world assets.
This capability was demonstrated in a recent pilot involving Ondo Finance, Mastercard, and JPMorgan’s Kinexys platform. The group completed a cross-border redemption of a tokenized U.S. Treasury fund where the XRP Ledger processed the on-chain portion of the transaction in under five seconds, while JPMorgan’s infrastructure handled the corresponding fiat currency leg.
The analysis from VanEck lands as the XRP ecosystem is expanding with regulated, real-world applications that could drive significant volume. The convergence of traditional finance with public blockchain infrastructure is testing whether institutions are ready to adopt networks like XRPL for core settlement functions, a move that could reshape global payment flows.
Brazil Paves the Way for Regulated XRP Adoption
Brazil is emerging as a key jurisdiction for XRP adoption after its securities regulator approved the country's first spot XRP ETF, the Hashtags Nasdaq XRP Index Fund. While trading has not yet commenced, the approval provides a regulated pathway for Brazilian investors to gain exposure to XRP alongside existing Bitcoin and Ethereum products.
In a parallel development, Brazilian firm Brasa Group announced plans to launch BBRL, a stablecoin pegged to the Brazilian real, natively on the XRP Ledger. This marks one of the first instances of an external institution using Ripple's infrastructure to issue its own fiat-backed token, providing a template for how other commercial and central banks could use the network for on-chain liabilities.
Cross-Chain Integration Opens DeFi Doors
A new integration with interoperability protocol Axelar aims to solve one of XRP's long-standing challenges: its isolation from the broader decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. The partnership will enable XRP holders to move their assets to other chains like Ethereum in roughly 20 seconds, granting access to stablecoins, decentralized exchanges, and tokenized assets across multiple networks.
While the XRP Ledger has long been positioned for fast payments, questions remain about its ability to scale to a global level, with some analyses noting its current infrastructure may not yet support the thousands of transactions per second required. However, the combination of VanEck's validation, Brazil's new financial products, and deepening DeFi interoperability presents the most concrete evidence to date of a multi-pronged strategy to embed the XRP Ledger into future financial plumbing.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
