Ripple (XRP) Wants to Enable Smart Contracts – DeFi in Focus

The XRP rally is currently cooling down, but Ripple has experienced a real boost from the US election. Internal work is being done to bring smart contracts to the XRP network. This could allow Ripple to expand towards DeFi.

Donald Trump’s election victory has given Ripple (XRP) a comeback, with the price curve increasing by around 270 percent over the last month

This XRP momentum should not be a one-off, and so Ripple is sending signals in many directions to explore future opportunities. In their latest quarterly report on XRP , analysts at Messari highlighted a technological initiative that focuses on the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector.

According to the report, Ripple is working with partners from the community on an upgrade to introduce native smart contracts into the network. Although the XRPL blockchain already supports functions such as NFTs and hosts a decentralized crypto exchange (DEX), users cannot yet carry out other typical activities such as lending or arbitrage natively in the XRP ecosystem. With smart contracts, Ripple’s functionality would catch up with large DeFi ecosystems such as Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL) or Tron (TRX).

In general, looking back on the third quarter, Messari draws a positive XRP balance. As of September 30, five weeks before Trump’s election, according to Messari’s data, Ripple was able to enjoy almost twice as many daily transactions in the third quarter as in the second quarter, around 1.7 million in absolute numbers. The number of new XRP addresses also grew by a good 100,000 per quarter – interest in Ripple was already increasing before CEO Brad Garlinghouse made contact with election winner Trump.

With a view to DeFi, but also to Ripple’s transformation into a financial services provider, Messari is paying particular attention to the planned stablecoin RLUSD. Ripple wants to place its own stablecoin in the XRP and Ethereum ecosystem. RLUSD was first introduced in April and is ready for launch, according to Ripple.

However, final approval from the financial authorities in New York is still pending, as Ripple recently explained the delays . Messari reminds us that native stablecoins like RLUSD add noticeable liquidity to an ecosystem. This could become an important factor for DeFi under XRP in 2025.

Conclusion: XRP comeback – Ripple use cases are now in demand

It is clear from the detailed Messari report that Ripple is once again asking itself what XRP should stand for in the future. XRP was originally designed as a bridge currency for international transactions, but was never really able to establish itself in this role.

Ripple will soon be launching RLUSD, which will make a stablecoin linked to the US dollar suitable for international transactions. Although XRP has returned to the top five cryptocurrencies thanks to the steep rally, it only offers very limited use cases. Smart contracts could change that, but for now they are just an ambitious project for Ripple and XRP with no specific target date.

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