Summary
1. Modernizing Infrastructure through 'Coexistence' with Traditional Finance
Rather than eliminating or replacing existing financial systems, XRPL aims to closely coexist with traditional financial institutions as an 'extension feature' that reduces friction in fragmented back-end operations such as payments, reconciliation, and collateral transfers.
2. Clear Role Division between Stablecoin 'RLUSD' and 'XRP'
While RLUSD, compliant with regulations, supports flows requiring price stability in payments and asset tokenization, XRP functions as a neutral 'bridge asset (liquidity layer)' that instantly connects different assets and networks, complementing each other.
3. Expansion of RWA (Real World Assets) towards 2030 and Major Challenges
Promoting the practical application of use cases for institutional investors, such as repo markets and on-chain lending. The biggest hurdle for global adoption is not technology but the 'clarification and consistency of rules (regulations) across countries and regions.'
──The application areas of the XRP Ledger (hereafter, XRPL) are currently expanding into DeFi and tokenization. Ultimately, which parts of the existing financial infrastructure does it aim to replace, and with which parts does it aim to coexist?
Marcus Infanger (hereafter, Infanger): XRPL was originally built to address inefficiencies in international value transfers, particularly in payments and settlements. This remains a core strength of XRPL.
Recently, however, it has become clear that this same infrastructure can support a broader range of financial workflows. Specifically, asset tokenization, liquidity management, repo-style financing, and even institutional DeFi use cases are being considered. It is also expected that functions like on-chain lending will be further expanded in the future.
However, our goal is not to 'replace the existing financial system itself.' Regulations, risk management, asset custody, and the trust relationships built over years among financial institutions all have their reasons for existing.
We see a business opportunity in 'modernizing' the infrastructure that underpins these systems. Areas that still suffer from slow processing, fragmentation, and operational inefficiencies are our targets. In this sense, blockchain technologies like XRPL can significantly reduce transaction friction and improve capital efficiency in areas such as payments, reconciliation, collateral transfers, and cross-border liquidity.
In other words, XRPL is not about eliminating existing market structures like traditional financial institutions, payment providers, and custodians, but rather about closely 'coexisting' with them. Blockchain is not a replacement for the current financial system but an 'extension feature' to enhance its functionality.
Ultimately, what we aim for is not the destruction of finance. We want to support existing infrastructure from behind, enabling it to operate more in real-time, be programmable, and smoothly interoperable across organizational boundaries.
