XRP's Tokenization Ranking: A Misguided Critique of Ripple's True Purpose
Ripple's XRP has been criticized for its ranking on public tokenization league tables, often coming in around 10th place. However, according to Apex Crypto and a co-host discussing the topic on a recent podcast, this criticism misses the point of what XRP is actually built to do.
Apex Crypto argued that public tokenization figures ignore an entire category of activity, private central bank digital currency platforms built on private versions of the XRP Ledger. Ripple's website has indeed described this CBDC platform since 2021 as a key part of its offerings.
The core of the argument is that XRP functions as a transmission layer, the asset used to move value between different tokenized asset types, rather than a platform that itself needs to host tokenized assets. This would mean that XRP's role in facilitating cross-border settlement and liquidity for institutions would require significant XRP reserves, pulling supply out of circulation.
Both Apex Crypto and his co-host acknowledged that Ripple's On-Demand Liquidity corridors are not yet operating at full capacity, framing current XRP price action and RLUSD's growing revenue as distractions from this longer-term liquidity thesis rather than evidence against it. The discussion also referenced a secondhand account of a former Federal Reserve official allegedly citing Malaysia's central bank as an example of an institution that would hold XRP to settle transactions with another country.