Why XRP matters: 5 key factors driving its value beyond price

Key takeaways:

• XRP eliminates pre-funding and speeds up cross-border remittances, making it useful in emerging markets.

• Loyalty and travel programs are bringing XRP into daily life, turning it from an investment asset into a practical payment option.

• Institutions like SBI and Santander add credibility by holding XRP reserves and exploring settlement use cases.

• With the SEC case resolved and global clarity growing, XRP now has the legal certainty and network reach to expand adoption.

XRP (XRP), the native digital asset of the XRP Ledger (XRPL), has often been discussed in terms of speculative gains or losses. But its significance goes deeper once you factor in XRP’s real-world use cases, institutional support and regulatory clarity.

Here are five factors that help explain why XRP matters beyond its market price.

1. Cross-border payments and remittance efficiency

International payments are one of XRP’s strongest value drivers. It helps eliminate pre-funding, reduce settlement time and cut costs by acting as a bridge currency.

Examples:

Compared to SWIFT, which can take days and incur high fees, XRP’s near-instant settlement makes it attractive in emerging markets where remittances are essential.

2. Loyalty and travel program integration

XRP is increasingly used outside financial institutions, especially in loyalty, travel and consumer services. This builds everyday utility for millions of users.

Examples:

• Webus/Wetour has established a $300-million XRP treasury to support blockchain-powered travel vouchers, loyalty points and settlement infrastructure. Over 60 million loyalty members will be able to use XRP for overseas services like airport transfers, premium rides and travel experiences.

SBI VC Trade (Japan) enables customers to earn XRP rewards through loyalty campaigns, expanding its use beyond trading.

When loyalty programs adopt XRP, it shifts from being an investment asset to something users engage with in daily life, from redeeming points to paying for travel.

Did you know? XRP TipBot (Netherlands, now discontinued) once allowed users to tip XRP on social platforms, demonstrating micro-reward potential in loyalty-style ecosystems.

3. Institutional adoption and treasury use

Institutions treating XRP as a serious operational and treasury asset add credibility and demand, signaling growing trust in its long-term stability.

By using XRP for liquidity management, settlements and cross-border transfers, these players validate its utility beyond speculation, strengthening its role as an institutional-grade digital asset.

Examples:

• SBI Holdings not only invests in Ripple but also integrates XRP in its subsidiaries (SBI Remit, SBI VC Trade) and holds significant XRP reserves.

• Santander (Spain) tested RippleNet and explored XRP-based settlement for cross-border payments through its One Pay FX platform.

• Bank of America has been reported as a Ripple partner, exploring XRP settlement for cross-border efficiency.

• Travel platform WeBus is setting aside a large XRP reserve managed by an institutional fund manager to underpin loyalty and settlement operations.

When corporations integrate XRP into their balance sheets or payment systems, it signals confidence and provides real demand beyond traders.

4. Technological features and ledger upgrades

XRPL offers speed, scalability and innovation that keep attracting use cases from cross-border payments and stablecoin issuance to tokenized assets and even decentralized finance (DeFi) integrations.

Its low fees and eco-friendly consensus model make it one of the most practical blockchains for real-world adoption.

Examples:

• Transaction speed: Settles in three to five seconds, compared to Bitcoin’s 10 minutes or SWIFT’s two to five days. This underpins remittance and microtransaction use cases.

• Low cost: Fees average a fraction of a cent, ideal for loyalty programs, micropayments and small rewards.

• XLS-20 amendment: Introduced native non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on XRPL, enabling loyalty points, tickets and collectibles to be tokenized directly onchain.

• XLS-70 / XLS-80 proposals: Improve digital credentials and permissioned domain controls, critical for regulated financial and enterprise use.

• Sologenic: (Built on XRPL) tokenizes stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), showing how XRPL tech supports financial assets beyond payments.

XRPL’s focus on real-world scalability is why businesses see it as infrastructure, not just a speculative chain.

Did you know? The XRP Ledger doesn’t rely on mining like Bitcoin or Ethereum. Instead, it uses a unique consensus mechanism validated by a global network of over 150 independent validators, including universities, financial institutions and community-run nodes, to confirm transactions in just three to five seconds.

5. Regulatory clarity and network effects

XRP’s long-term value is tied not just to technology and adoption, but also to how regulators treat it and how large networks integrate it. By 2025, the regulatory and market environment will have shifted significantly, giving XRP more clarity and momentum.

Clear legal status

• In July 2023, US District Judge Analisa Torres ruled that XRP is not a security when sold on exchanges, though direct institutional sales can be subject to securities law.

• In August 2025, Ripple and the US Securities and Exchange Commission officially ended their five-year legal battle. The SEC dropped its appeals, and Ripple agreed to pay a $125-million civil penalty. This conclusion provides long-awaited finality and regulatory certainty in the US market.

Regional regulatory alignment

• Japan: XRP continues to be one of the few cryptocurrencies with a clear legal standing, thanks to proactive rules and SBI Holdings’ advocacy.

• UK and EU: Ripple has been active in aligning XRP usage with the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework, ensuring compliance in European markets.

Network growth in numbers

• As of 2025, there are over 6.6 million active XRP wallets globally. Blockchain explorers estimate that more than 6 million individual XRPL accounts have been created.

• SBI Group’s crypto exchanges (SBI VC Trade and BITPoint Japan) grew rapidly, from about 807,000 accounts in March 2024 to roughly 1.65 million by March 2025.

• SBI Holdings itself holds about 1.6 trillion Japanese yen ($10 billion) worth of XRP and Ripple-related assets, a figure larger than its own market capitalization of 1.2 trillion yen.

With banks, exchanges and consumer platforms adopting XRP, network effects multiply: more liquidity, more corridors and more opportunities to use XRP in daily life.

Why does this matter?

The end of the Ripple vs. SEC case in 2025 eliminates one of XRP’s biggest overhangs. Combined with regulatory clarity in Asia and Europe and measurable growth in wallets, accounts and corporate reserves, XRP now has both the legal certainty and network reach to drive adoption well beyond speculation.

Challenges XRP still faces

XRP enters 2025 with legal clarity and growing integrations, but usage still lags compared to stablecoins like USDC (USDC), which move trillions annually.

At the same time, stablecoins and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are intensifying competition with broad regulatory backing and global payment networks. Against this backdrop, XRP’s future depends on whether it can scale adoption beyond infrastructure to tangible, widespread use.

• Adoption vs. actual usage: Many integrations exist, but user activity remains lower than potential. Compared with stablecoins, USDC (from Circle) shows enormous onchain volume. For example, in 2025, USDC’s annual transaction volume is trillions of dollars ($5.9 trillion over a one-year period) in onchain transfers. That scale suggests people are using stablecoins far more broadly (for payments, transfers, etc.) than many non-fiat cryptocurrencies.

• Competition: In 2025, stablecoins and CBDCs pose strong competition to XRP: Fireblocks’ Network for Payments, Circle’s Arc network and Circle + FIS partnerships are driving USDC adoption across 100+ countries, while CBDCs promise state-backed digital money with regulatory trust and easy banking integration.

• Regulation: Regulation remains a double-edged sword for XRP. While the US case ending in 2025 brought legal clarity, some regions still restrict or refuse to recognize XRP as money. China bans most crypto use, forcing overseas-only workarounds, and global stablecoin laws are tightening, raising compliance standards but also boosting trust in rivals like USDC. This mix of progress and barriers means XRP’s adoption potential is still uneven across markets.

Given these challenges, XRP’s future depends on whether adoption can scale from integration to everyday use and how it navigates competition from stablecoins and CBDCs. 

With legal clarity now secured and global partnerships expanding, XRP stands at a crossroads: poised to bridge traditional finance and digital assets but challenged to prove it can thrive in a rapidly evolving payments landscape.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.