The Outdated Banking System XRP Was Built to Disrupt

To understand XRP’s relevance, you’ve got to first understand what it was reacting to. For decades, SWIFT has been the backbone of international money transfers. But here’s the thing: SWIFT isn’t actually a payment system. It’s more like a secure messaging service between banks. When you send money overseas, SWIFT just sends the message. The actual money moves later, and often, not directly.

This is where nostro/vostro accounts come in. These are bank-held foreign accounts that act like pre-loaded channels for international settlements. One bank has funds sitting idle in another bank’s account just to make future transactions possible. It’s a slow, capital-intensive system. It works, but it wasn’t built for the internet era.

XRP aimed to cut through this mess. By using a digital asset that can be transferred in seconds across borders, with no intermediaries, no pre-funded accounts, and no need to wait two business days, XRP offered a real-time solution where SWIFT only offered messages.

In practice, the XRP Ledger allows money to be sent directly from Point A to Point B. No central party approves it. No holding period. No need to calculate exchange windows or wait for batch settlements. It’s a direct, near-instant bridge. This is where the concept of bridge to XRPL comes in. For institutions moving funds across chains or currencies, bridging to XRPL provides access to liquidity that can settle fast and cost next to nothing.

 

Ripple and XRP: Connected but Not the Same

It’s important to separate the XRP Ledger from Ripple, the company. They’re linked, but not interchangeable.

Ripple, originally known as OpenCoin and later Ripple Labs, is a blockchain-based fintech company that uses XRP in its products, but it didn’t create XRP to be owned. In fact, XRP is not controlled by Ripple, though Ripple holds a large amount of it. The Ledger XRP is open-source and maintained by a growing community that includes independent developers, financial institutions, and ecosystem players.

Ripple built tools like RippleNet, which connects banks and payment providers, allowing them to settle transactions in real time. Within RippleNet is ODL (On-Demand Liquidity), a service that uses XRP as a bridge currency to move money without pre-funded accounts. This is where XRP’s role becomes practical: not just a coin, but a layer of liquidity for regulated financial rails.

In this context, Ripple is more like the developer of enterprise tools built on top of XRPL, while XRP remains the native asset that powers its core functions.

 

The Legal Saga: SEC, Uncertainty, and the Comeback

Back in December 2020, Ripple Labs was sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which claimed that XRP had been sold as an unregistered security. The lawsuit quickly became one of the most significant in crypto history, with exchanges pulling back and XRP’s growth slowing as uncertainty dragged on.

A turning point came in July 2023, when a federal court issued a split ruling. The judge decided that institutional sales of XRP did qualify as securities offerings. But at the same time, programmatic sales, those made through exchanges and to the public, did not. This ruling gave platforms a path to relist XRP and marked a shift in how regulators viewed it in retail contexts.

Despite that partial clarity, the case didn’t end. While Ripple recently withdrew its appeal, the SEC has not yet followed suit, keeping the legal fight alive for now. Legal experts expect more direction by meados de agosto de 2025, when the SEC is due to submit a status update to the U.S. Court of Appeals.

Until then, the matter remains in legal limbo. Still, the 2023 decision gave XRP room to regain market traction. After years of being boxed out of the U.S. market, it’s now back on major exchanges, and the lingering case hasn’t stopped institutional or public interest from returning.

 

Trump’s Return and XRP’s Resurgence in 2025

Fast forward to 2025. The return of a pro-crypto U.S. administration has changed the tone of regulation. There’s less appetite for overreach and more talk of enabling blockchain innovation inside the regulatory framework.For XRP, this climate shift couldn’t have come at a better time. Traders, developers, and institutions are now circling back, re-evaluating XRP not just as a coin that survived, but one that might finally have the runway to scale.

With that shift, some analysts have started revisiting long-term Previsões de preços XRP, suggesting it could reclaim its previous all-time high, or even push beyond, if institutional adoption deepens and Ripple’s stablecoin strategy plays out as expected. The administration’s openness to blockchain innovation has also brought regulatory clarity to an entirely different, but related sector: stablecoins.

 

The GENIUS Act and the Stablecoin Shift

In July 2025, the U.S. signed into law the Lei GENIUS, a long-awaited framework for regulating stablecoins. It introduced clear standards: stablecoins must be backed 1:1 by U.S. dollars or high-quality assets, issued only by regulated entities, and subject to audit and transparency requirements. Exchanges that don’t comply won’t be able to offer non-approved stablecoins once the transition period ends.

Enter Ripple’s RLUSD, a stablecoin that Ripple quietly began building in 2024. It’s fully backed, fully audited, and designed to comply with the exact kind of rules the GENIUS Act now enforces. This positions Ripple as one of the first movers in the new stablecoin era.

Here’s where XRP comes in: while RLUSD serves as the stable settlement layer, XRP remains the bridge asset, helping convert value across corridors where fiat isn’t liquid or where cross-border efficiency is still a problem.

They’re not competing. They’re complementary. RLUSD helps banks and fintechs move fiat in a compliant way. XRP extends that reach by linking networks and currencies that aren’t naturally interoperable.

 

Final Thoughts: XRP’s Moment Might Finally Be Here

It took over a decade, a legal battle, a shift in political winds, and a total rethinking of stablecoin frameworks, but XRP may be stepping into the very role it was designed for. It was built not to compete with memes or short-term pumps, but to upgrade the financial plumbing of the world.

With the GENIUS Act in effect, Ripple’s RLUSD rolling out, and the XRP Ledger still running strong, XRP has re-entered the conversation, not as an altcoin chasing hype, but as a serious solution to serious problems.