Investment Disclaimer: This is not investment advice. PLEASE DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH !!!!AI Disclaimer: This post has been written entirely “by hand”. I do use LLMs as a research assistant but not for generating any parts of this post.Introduction:Wise Plc has been on my to do list for some time. A long time ago, part of my professional duty was to monitor and execute (large) international payments and I was always perplexed how slow and cumbersome the process was even for large Financial Institutions. Back th ...

Core Insights - XRP is significantly lagging behind competitors like Solana and Ethereum in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, with a total value locked (TVL) of just over $82 million compared to Ethereum's nearly $83 billion and Solana's close to $11 billion [3] - The recent launch of XRP's Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) sidechain has not substantially improved its position in the DeFi market [1][3] - XRP was originally designed for international payments and money transfers, focusing on fast transaction settlement and regulatory compliance rather than building a comprehensive DeFi ecosystem [5][8] Company Overview - XRP serves as a bridge asset for transferring value across different currencies and venues, which is its primary use case today [5] - Ripple, the issuer of XRP, is expanding its offerings to create a fintech stack aimed at institutional investors, which includes the RLUSD stablecoin [6][7] - RLUSD, with a market cap of $898 million, is positioned as a stable and regulated option for banks and fintechs, differentiating XRP from DeFi platforms that require complex regulatory compliance [7][8] Market Position - XRP's low DeFi TVL indicates it is not focused on yield farming, lending services, or staking activities, which are more prevalent on platforms like Ethereum and Solana [8][9] - The emphasis for XRP is on developing features targeted at institutional clients, which is seen as a more critical area for growth compared to traditional DeFi activities [8][9]

Group 1 - XRP is the third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, nearing $152 billion, following Bitcoin and Ethereum [1] - The SEC has dropped high-profile cases against crypto companies, including Ripple, leading to XRP's strong performance [2] - XRP operates on a robust network capable of processing 1,500 transactions per second, positioning it well for international money transfers [3] Group 2 - Ripple's CEO believes that XRP and its stablecoin RLUSD can attract international payment volume from SWIFT [5] - Ripple's solution enables traditional banks to conduct nearly instant payments globally, enhancing capital efficiency [6] - If Ripple can capture market share from SWIFT, it would validate XRP's use case and likely increase demand and price [7] Group 3 - XRP's strong technical network and significant market cap among non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies highlight its potential in international payments [8] - Demonstrating the main use case for XRP could lead to a price increase for the token [8]

Chris, um obviously a lot of enthusiasm around this sort of deregulatory period on financials in general, but do you get the sense that the industry is going to feel free to uh step on the gas on fees uh when there's been some discussion in the cell side just about on where fee trajectories are right now. Yeah, I I actually think that um I think it will continue to uh accelerate and I do think the regulatory environment will be helpful not necessarily just around banking but just the opportunity uh around I ...