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At the Apex 2025 summit, David Schwartz, the Chief Technology Officer at Ripple and co-creator of the XRP Ledger, provided an in-depth discussion on the current trajectory and future potential of blockchain, DeFi, and tokenized finance. Schwartz's remarks, captured by a crypto commentator, highlighted the significance of real-world tokenization,
, and the growing institutional momentum toward the XRP Ledger.Schwartz reflected on his personal journey with the XRP Ledger, expressing a deep sense of ownership and fulfillment as he watched the ledger evolve over more than a decade. He admitted that while he had hoped the ledger would become something meaningful, he could not have predicted the full scale and shape of its development.
The Apex 2025 event has evolved from a developer-focused gathering to a broader, more diverse summit, attracting institutional representatives, retail investors, developers, and general supporters of the ecosystem. Schwartz noted that the presence of institutions focused on tokenizing real-world assets signals a major shift, which could drive the next wave of blockchain adoption.
Schwartz emphasized that the most crucial developments on the XRP Ledger are those enabling financial tools needed by ordinary users. He argued that while speculation and digital collectibles have dominated earlier phases of blockchain growth, they are not sufficient for achieving widespread adoption. Instead, the future lies in providing services such as loans, payments, and stable investment products that meet real financial needs, making decentralized finance a viable alternative to traditional finance.
Technically, Schwartz highlighted that supporting complex asset structures is fundamental for achieving this vision. This includes tokenized real-world assets, loan portfolios, and fractional ownership mechanisms. Once these functionalities are robustly implemented on-chain, the blockchain space will be able to directly compete with traditional finance markets, representing a multi-trillion-dollar opportunity.
Schwartz’s appearance at Apex 2025 comes at a pivotal time for the XRP Ledger, which is increasingly drawing attention from both developers and institutional players for its capabilities in supporting tokenization and scalable financial applications. His comments align with broader trends indicating growing convergence between blockchain infrastructure and mainstream financial services.
Ripple's Chief Technology Officer (CTO) recently made a significant announcement regarding the XRP Ledger, highlighting its evolution and potential. The
acknowledged that while he had envisioned the ledger becoming a meaningful tool, he had not anticipated the full extent of its development and impact. This underscores the transformative journey of the XRP Ledger, which has grown from a theoretical concept to a robust, production-grade financial platform.The XRP Ledger has recently seen a major development with the launch of Ondo Finance's tokenized US Treasury fund, Ondo Short-Term US Government Treasuries (OUSG), directly on the network. This move allows Qualified Purchasers to
or redeem OUSG around the clock by settling with Ripple’s enterprise-grade stablecoin RLUSD. This integration effectively combines BlackRock-custodied Treasury bills with a 24/7 public chain and its native decentralized exchange, marking a significant milestone in the tokenization of real-world assets.The OUSG fund, which already commands over $670 million in total value locked, is positioned alongside BlackRock’s BUIDL and Franklin Templeton’s FOBXX at the top of the rapidly expanding tokenized-Treasury league table. Ondo’s broader real-world-asset (RWA) platform manages roughly $1.3 billion, but this is its first deployment on a non-EVM chain, serving as an endorsement of XRPL’s purpose-built tokenization rails.
The process on the XRP Ledger is designed for efficiency and security. Institutional investors can create or redeem OUSG in a single transaction by delivering or receiving RLUSD, Ripple’s dollar-pegged stablecoin that settles natively on XRPL. This setup allows for immediate settlement, bypassing traditional cutoff times and bank wires. Ripple and Ondo have committed liquidity to market-make both legs—RLUSD ↔ USD off-chain and RLUSD ↔ OUSG on-chain—ensuring that investors can scale in or out without slipping on spreads.
The entire flow remains permissioned at the edges and permissionless in the core. Qualified Purchasers authenticate through Ondo’s compliance portal, receive an allow-list flag on-chain, and then interact with the built-in DEX like any other asset pair. Settlement remains atomic: OUSG units burn or mint the moment RLUSD transfers, eliminating the daylight-risk gap that plagues traditional T-plus settlement cycles.
XRPL’s deterministic order book, low fees, and native token-issuance primitives spare issuers the need to bolt on smart-contract wrappers for basic custody logic. Forthcoming Multi-Purpose Tokens (MPTs) will allow OUSG to embed cash-flow rights and compliance fences at the protocol level, while the planned lending protocol will let desks rehypothecate OUSG as repo collateral without bridging to another chain. Permissioned Domains will give asset managers namespace-level control over who trades within walled gardens—a prerequisite for regulated liquidity pools.
For treasury teams juggling intraday cash buffers, tokenized bills on XRPL unlock immediate redeployment of idle dollars. A fund manager who redeems OUSG at 21:00 ET on a Friday receives RLUSD within seconds and can cycle into overnight reverse-repo, stablecoin liquidity farming, or FX settlement in Asia before traditional markets even open. Conversely, corporates that sweep surplus RLUSD into OUSG every evening now capture US Treasury yield without operational drag.
Markus Infanger, SVP of RippleX, framed the launch as a watershed, stating that tokenized finance is no longer theoretical—it’s maturing in real markets. Institutions can now access high-quality assets like US Treasuries on public blockchains, with the compliance and efficiency they need. This represents progress in bringing trusted financial assets into a 24/7 market—enabling greater liquidity, operational efficiency, and faster access to capital.
The immediate roadmap for the XRP Ledger includes opening a secondary RLUSD-OUSG order book on XRPL’s DEX, integrating OUSG as collateral in XRPL-based lending markets once live, and extending mint-and-burn access to additional Qualified Purchaser jurisdictions as regulators sign off on the identity stack. Longer term, Ripple plans to use RLUSD as the hub currency for other RWAs—starting with commercial paper and municipal notes—turning XRPL into a full-spectrum capital-markets substrate.

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