Former Ripple Adviser Warns XRP’s Biggest Test Is Still Ahead

Former Ripple CBDC adviser Anthony Welfare told the AllinCrypto Podcast that the XRP Ledger (XRPL) has strong technical features. Those strengths alone will not guarantee adoption.

Institutions are testing the network, and a new Nasdaq listing has put XRP in front of stock investors.

What the XRP Ledger Brings to Finance

The XRPL’s features suit payments and tokenization, but Welfare argues technology is only part of the picture. Several practical questions determine whether institutions actually use it.

“When you see a lot of the things that are put out about XRP and its kind of ecosystem and Ripple as a company, and to set the stage even further there, it being this kind of like new financial system that can solve correspondent banking and that everybody can do all these use cases on and that our new financial system can run upon,” Welfare said.

Welfare’s main points are:

• Speed, low costs, and a native decentralized exchange suit payments and tokenization well.
• The XRP asset differs from the XRP Ledger, so institutions can use ledger functions without relying on the token.
• Liquidity, custody, compliance, and interoperability bridge technical readiness and real-world use.
• “The tech is there,” he said, citing his work advising central banks and on payment projects.
• Private blockchains will likely expand first, with some activity later anchoring to public networks.

He also sees a role for auditable records that AI agents can rely on, which calls for trusted transaction layers. Stablecoins could reduce payment friction and create new orchestration opportunities for existing players, rather than eliminating them.

Is Recent Momentum Enough to Drive Adoption?

Developments over the past month lend support to that view. A European consortium is targeting euro stablecoin adoption across several networks, including the XRP Ledger.

That multi-network approach fits Welfare’s view of a multi-chain future. Welfare sees interoperability, rather than dominance by one chain, as the key commercial opportunity.

The IMF has mapped the XRP Ledger alongside other public ledgers in discussions of tokenized finance. Ripple has also expanded partnerships, including Ripple Prime services for Brevan Howard.

An integration with DriveWealth uses RLUSD on the XRP Ledger to speed up global funding. Each development shows the ledger in a different role, from settlement to funding.

Evernorth, a Ripple-backed vehicle holding about 473 million XRP, debuted on Nasdaq under the ticker XRPN this week. Shares opened at $16.68, briefly climbed to $19.38, and closed at $16.91 on Monday, October 12.

Congratulations to our friends at @evernorthxrp on their Nasdaq debut!Evernorth represents a new milestone for the XRP ecosystem, putting XRP to work via institutional strategies, and expanding with the network as new capabilities are introduced.Proud to partner with… pic.twitter.com/XZ1iOqKFJm

— Ripple (@Ripple) October 14, 2026

On Wednesday, October 14, XRPN closed at $15.26, down 7.40%. That gives traditional investors stock-market exposure to a large XRP treasury, without buying tokens directly.

Against that backdrop, XRP price is up 1.72% over the past 24 hours, according to BeInCrypto data. It trades near $1.34 as of mid-October, and price action remains volatile.

Even so, whether this institutional activity becomes lasting demand remains an open question.