Evernorth, a treasury company with a focus on XRP and supported by notable entities such as Ripple, Kraken, Pantera Capital, and SBI Holdings, is reaching out to institutional investors with newfound claims about the real-world use of XRP by banks. The company’s message suggests that rather than wondering if adoption will occur in the next 18 months, the focus should shift to the extent of adoption and the regulatory framework that will govern these transactions.
Recent statistics reveal a significant surge in daily transactions on the XRP Ledger (XRPL), which have escalated to nearly 3 million, a considerable increase from around 1 million in mid-2025. Key players, including Bitstamp, Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin, and Braza Bank, have emerged as the busiest names fueling this transaction volume. While these figures are indeed substantial, questions remain about their implications for practical banking utility.
The upward trajectory of XRPL transaction volume, which has reportedly tripled in the past year, coincides with at least one major European bank implementing its regulated euro stablecoin on the XRP network, marking it as one of four public chains utilized for this purpose.
However, a closer look at XRP’s on-chain metrics and exchange flows presents a more nuanced narrative regarding whether the surge in volume signifies a robust banking infrastructure or is merely a concentrated spike driven by a select group of known participants. The marketing narrative surrounding XRP doesn’t necessarily contradict the on-chain data, but rather presents different aspects of the same reality.
Asheesh Birla, Evernorth’s chief executive, argues that the long-term potential of XRP will stem from its usage as working capital by banks and businesses rather than from retail trading activities. This position establishes a clear criterion for evaluating XRP’s future: the emphasis is on bank-driven settlement volume instead of speculative market demand or exchange-traded fund (ETF) inflows. Thus far, the available data provides a mixed view when measured against this standard.
The XRPL’s notable increase to nearly 3 million daily transactions is a documented fact. The major players contributing to this traffic—such as Bitstamp, RLUSD, and Braza Bank—are identifiable financial entities rather than anonymous wallets, lending credibility to the ascent in transaction volume. In a significant development reported in May 2026, Evernorth illustrated a tokenized U.S. Treasury redemption involving industry heavyweights—Mastercard, J.P. Morgan’s Kinexys, Ondo Finance, and Ripple—which used the XRPL as a settlement layer, successfully processing USD proceeds in Singapore outside conventional banking hours. Evernorth framed this event as showcasing XRP’s capabilities in facilitating major inter-institutional blockchain transactions, reinforcing the reality of such activities.
Nevertheless, the data does not yet affirm whether these significant transactions mark a trend of systematic banking adoption or merely represent pilot programs. Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity service, operational since 2018 and utilizing XRP as a bridge asset in various cross-border corridors particularly in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, illustrates that while volume is growing, it remains geographically concentrated and does not yet support a global banking infrastructure as suggested by some narratives.
Institutional transfers on the XRPL have maintained stability in 2026, but data from Chainalysis suggests these transactions face increasing competition from USDC and wholesale Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) initiatives for share in institutional settlement flows.
To address the evolving needs of regulated institutions, the XRPL protocol is undergoing improvements designed to enhance its compliance capabilities. Proposed amendments include features such as Token Escrow, a Permissioned DEX, and Restricted Environments, which aim to create a compliant framework for whitelisted institutions to securely manage on-chain transactions.
Additionally, the forthcoming XLS-66 XRP Lending Protocol seeks to integrate single-asset XRP vaults, fixed-term loans, and enhanced privacy features directly into the ledger, thereby reducing reliance on external smart contracts. Currently, validators are deliberating on this proposal, which necessitates an 80% supermajority for activation. While analysts have touted it as a pathway to unlocking a substantial lending and collateral market on the XRPL, until the necessary consensus is achieved, these developments remain in the conceptual stage rather than reflecting actual banking activities on the ledger.
