XRP Ledger Rockets Into Top 10 With $1B Stablecoin Surge, Ripple Pushes Institutional DeFi

• XRP Ledger reached $1B in monthly stablecoin volume and entered the top 10 chains for real-world assets.
• Ripple outlined its roadmap with new features, including credentials, Deep Freeze, and a native lending protocol.
• Institutional DeFi is shifting from pilot projects to large-scale adoption with compliance at the core.

Ripple announced that Institutional DeFi has officially moved beyond pilot programs and is now driving billion-dollar volumes across global markets. Over the past year, the XRP Ledger (XRPL) crossed major milestones, including its first $1 billion month in stablecoin transactions.

It also entered the top 10 blockchains supporting real-world assets, cementing its role as a trusted settlement layer for regulated institutions and crypto-native platforms alike.

The blog post stressed that every advancement in XRPL’s utility directly strengthens the use case for XRP itself. With tokenization at the core, the ledger is now focusing on powering two of the most relevant market areas today: stablecoin payments and collateral management.

Simulate Feature Lets Enterprises Test Transactions Safely

The Ripple roadmap had a few features already deployed on the XRPL. They consisted of credentials, which use decentralized IDs for enabling safe compliance checks such as KYC or accreditation.

Deep Freeze also supports issuers freezing accounts once they flag them, a necessary feature for compliance with regulations while keeping activities clear on-chain. Simulate, another new feature, lets enterprises test transactions before execution, reducing risks in high-value transfers.

These features follow major updates this year. Versions 2.5.0 and 2.6.0 included features such as permissioned DEXs, batch transactions, and token escrow, furthering the settlement capabilities of XRPL into regulated markets.

Experts further noted that such innovations, spearheaded by compliance, unlock the network for players from traditional finance.

XRPL 3.0.0 to Introduce Native Lending Protocol

Later this year, the most anticipated feature thus far is XRPL’s own lending protocol, which arrives with version 3.0.0. The protocol will allow for pooled loans and structured loans all the way on the ledger, providing institutional access to inexpensive, compliant credit markets.

Through issuance automation, repayments, and reconciliation, it provides for lower operational costs while boosting liquidity. In parallel, Ripple also plans to introduce zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) later to marry privacy with compliance-based accountability. 

The first anonymous tokens, which will be based on XRPL’s new Multi-Purpose Token standard, are due shortly after the start of 2026. They should allow institutions to process tokenized collateral discreetly while also meeting audit requirements.

Related reading : Ripple Unleashes XRP Ledger MPT to Transform $5 Trillion Trade Finance Gap