Ripple CTO David Schwartz just lately responded to criticism directed at XRP Ledger (XRPL), shutting down claims that the XRP had no actual utility.
An X person argued that XRP has reached a large market cap (at present at $140 billion) regardless of producing little worth. The person additional cited knowledge from DeFiLlama, stating that the XRP Ledger (XRPL) logged solely $44,000 in quantity over 24 hours.
In response, the Ripple CTO dismissed the argument, stating that the referenced determine doubtless accounted for Automated Market Makers (AMMs) on XRPL, that are a “minuscule fraction of what individuals use XRP for.”
You already know the XRPL is a DEX, proper?
— David “JoelKatz” Schwartz (@JoelKatz) March 22, 2025
Because the dialog continued, one other X person inquired in regards to the XRP Ledger’s different use circumstances. The Ripple CTO responded by highlighting a local performance of XRP Ledger, which is a decentralized alternate. “You already know the XRPL is a DEX, proper?” Schwartz added.
XRP Ledger highlights
The XRP Ledger helps quite a lot of features past simply AMMs, together with cross-currency and cross-border funds and tokenization, amongst others. Core worth propositions of the XRP Ledger (XRPL) embrace native functionalities corresponding to tokens, NFTs, a decentralized alternate (DEX), escrow performance, embedded compliance and token administration.
NFTs, like issued currencies (also referred to as native tokens), are constructed into the XRPL’s core protocol and don’t require sensible contracts for creation or switch. XLS-20 standardized NFTs in October 2022, delivering advantages like royalties and anti-spam measures.
Presently, 7,744,695 NFTs have been created utilizing the XLS-20 customary. On Dec. 17, 2024, Ripple’s USD-pegged stablecoin, RLUSD, was launched on each the XRPL and Ethereum. The stablecoin is totally backed by U.S. greenback deposits, short-term U.S. treasuries, and “different money equivalents,” with month-to-month third-party attestations.
The XRPL base layer doesn’t presently help arbitrary sensible contracts, which was an intentional design choice to advertise safety and stability over complexity. Nonetheless, plans to introduce native sensible contracts have been introduced in September 2024 and are making progress at present.

