“Should I buy Ripple?”

There was a short period where it was the only question I fielded from no-coiners and newbies. 

Just the fact that they had to ask, told you that they were no-coiners wanting to hop the crypto hype train or newbies whose only research consisted of reading influencers blogs or paid analysts articles quoting  $100 XRP     

First of I have would explain that Ripple is actually called Ripple Labs. It is a privately held company. So technically you can not buy Ripple. But don’t worry it is a common held misconception.

Did they mean XRP the native token of the XRP Ledger(XRPL). (XRP being an open-source blockchain launched in 2012).

NOTE: Ripple Labs started life as OpenCoin, then Ripple and 6th October 2015 rebranded to Ripple Labs.

RippleNet

This is what Ripple Labs banking partners sign up for.

• xCurrent: An enterprise software solution that enables banks to settle cross-border payments with end-to-end and real-time messaging. It does not require the use of cryptocurrency XRP, instead relies on the Interledger Protocol (ILP) to connect different payment networks.

• xVia: A standardized API interface that allows financial institutions and corporates to plug into the RippleNet infrastructure. It enables users to send payments globally with rich data, such as invoices, attached to the transaction. (does not require the use of cryptocurrency XRP).

• xRapid (On-Demand Liquidity/ODL): A liquidity solution that uses the XRP token as a bridge currency to provide instant liquidity. 

How ODL works

The ODL mechanism replaces the traditional model of holding idle capital in foreign currencies with a real-time conversion process that settles in seconds:

1. Initiation: A financial institution initiates a cross-border payment in the sender's local currency (e.g., USD) via RippleNet. 

2. Fiat-to-XRP Conversion: The sending institution converts the local currency intoXRPon a local digital asset exchange.

3. XRP Transfer: The XRP token is transmitted across the XRP Ledger to the destination country. This step typically takes 3–5 seconds, incurs a negligible transaction fee (and currency conversion slippage).
4. XRP-to-Fiat Conversion: Upon arrival, the XRP is immediately sold on a local exchange in the destination country for the recipient's local currency.

The bankers coin that bankers don’t use

“holding idle capital in foreign currencies”. 

Ripple Labs and their marketing team of social media influencers and paid analysts gloss over this bit while playing up the list of banking partners.

Like all marketing, it is about creating an illusion. In this case the illusion is at some point in time, banksters are going to have to buy up large amounts of XRP tokens and become XRP whales or bag HODLers overnight. Instead of “holding idle capital in foreign currencies”, the banks would now hold idle capital in XRP digital assets. That is not how RippleNet works.

On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) relies on a network of regulated digital asset exchanges that act as liquidity providers, enabling the instant conversion of fiat currency XRP and back. These are the main exchanges and are integrated directly into the infrastructure via API.

• Bitso (Latin America), USD-MXN

• Coins.ph and PDAX (Philippines), USD-PHP and JPY-PHP

• Bitstamp (Europe & UK), conversions for USD, EUR and GBP

• Independent Reserve & BTC Markets (Australia), AUD

The exchanges must be pre-funded by the financial institution using ODL to ensure sufficient liquidity is available for instant execution.

So the exchanges will be the HODLers of the liquidity not the banks. But once funded the XRP gets recycled again and again, with only a near zero amount of XRP consumed in each transaction.

That just one dynamic in the investment equation

This post is already too long so will have cut it short. Other dynamics to consider:

• 1 billion XRP come out of escrow each month, what does not get used to pay bills or acquire assets, gets returned to escrow. As XRP is down 70% from ATH they need to sell over 3x XRP
• Ripple Labs has 37.5 billion XRP in it’s treasury
• Stable coins eating RippleNets lunch
• Ripple Labs issuing their own Stablecoin (RLUSD). Will RLUSD compliment XRP utility or replace it?
• XRPL was meant to be a ledger for the banks but is being marketed to other applications. Is this rebranding/narrative change a good sign or a sign of lack of traction
• XRP transactional volume is decreasing not increasing, which contradicts the adoption narrative being feed by Ripple Labs marketing machine.

• multiple sources estimate Ripple Labs annual revenue to be between $189 and $210.1 million. Another report suggests $1.3 billion in revenue for 2024 financial year. Take your pick. As a private company the financials are not publicly available so these are at best guesstimates only
• reported lobbying costs of between €200,000 and €299,999 for the financial year ending December 2024
• Ripple Labs recently closed a $500 million strategic funding round in November 2025 to accelerate product development in areas like stablecoins (RLUSD), custody, and tokenization

The Answer to the Question

The no-coiners and newbies really only wanted confirmation that “Ripple” was a BUY. Sorry but I don’t do “Hot Tips”. Nothing is ever that simple. And you are asking the wrong question.

To start with it is always the wrong question.

Despite giving them contrary information to what they have read or been told. They will still buy.

DISCLAIMER: I promise no AI was harmed in the researching, editing and publishing of this.

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