What’s behind XRP’s move to DeFi?

The following is a guest post and analysis from Vincent Maliepaard, Marketing Director at Sentora.

2025 has marked a turning point for XRP, combining explosive price gains with transformative shifts in its core narrative. In July, the token hit an all-time high of $3.58, propelled in part by decisive legal victories. Beyond price action, Ripple’s launch of the RLUSD stablecoin has gained significant traction, and the network is now doubling down on expanding XRP’s footprint in the DeFi ecosystem.

The foundation of XRP’s breakout was laid when the SEC dropped its lawsuit against Ripple, removing a significant regulatory overhang that had suppressed institutional interest for years. This legal resolution as well as the Trump administration’s crypto-friendly policy framework, including the GENIUS Act, catalyzed a broader bull market across digital assets.

The token has also benefited from a strategic revaluation as institutional investors engaged in speculative rotation toward under-owned large-cap cryptocurrencies, recognizing XRP as a legitimate capital layer rather than a speculative trading vehicle.

This thesis was reinforced by Ripple’s launch of the RLUSD stablecoin in late 2024, which quickly scaled to a $600 million market cap and demonstrated real-world utility in driving adoption momentum. The ecosystem expansion has continued with the launch of the XRPL EVM sidechain, enhancing interoperability and smart contract functionality, while anticipation builds around the potential approval of an XRP ETF that could further accelerate institutional adoption.

Let’s dive in for a breakdown of XRP’s growth and momentum, new players in the ecosystem and XRP’s breakthrough in DeFi.

XRP’s Growth and Momentum

XRP’s concentration dynamics reveal a mature institutional ownership structure that mirrors traditional financial assets, with the top 10 wallets controlling approximately 41% of circulating supply, expanding to 50% among the top 20 holders and over 70% within the top 100. This concentration pattern indicates institutional capital allocation rather than retail speculation, which supports XRP’s evolution into an institutional asset class.

The token’s transformation from a previous cycle laggard to a favorite gained significant validation through Coinbase’s integration. In July, the exchange launched cbXRP, a wrapped token backed 1:1 by XRP specifically designed for cross-chain functionality. This infrastructure development immediately unlocked new use cases, with Moonwell becoming the first major DeFi protocol to support cbXRP, enabling community members to lend and borrow the wrapped token within the platform’s DeFi ecosystem.

Growth of cbXRP on Moonwell has been steady, gradually growing to over $1.2 million in liquidity since its launch in June. While this may be far from XRPs typical multi-billion dollar headlines, it marks an important milestone in XRP’s DeFi journey.

These developments signal a fundamental shift in how traditional exchanges and DeFi protocols are positioning XRP, moving beyond simple trading solutions. The combination of concentrated institutional ownership, enhanced technical infrastructure through wrapped tokens, and expanding lending markets demonstrates that XRP is experiencing adoption momentum as capital flows increasingly recognize its utility as a cross-border settlement layer and institutional-grade digital asset.

Expanding into DeFi

The expansion of XRP into decentralized finance represents a natural progression for what Gabriel Halm of Sentora describes as a blockchain that has “successfully established itself as a digital payment network,” with DeFi development being “an intuitive next step in creating a comprehensive finance ecosystem for XRP.” This evolution addresses a critical gap in XRP’s utility, as the token historically lacked the fundamental DeFi primitives.

Flare Network has emerged as one such infrastructure provider for XRPFi, through the introduction of FAssets—which upon launch, enables XRP holders to convert their tokens into FXRP, a wrapped version of XRP. This operates in a non-custodial, trust-minimized framework which uses smart contracts for cross-chain verification.

Upcoming Yield Opportunities for XRP in DeFi

While users can currently earn a modest yield (around 0.1% currently) by supplying cbXRP on Moonwell, significantly higher returns may be on the horizon with the upcoming launch of the Firelight Protocol on Flare.

Firelight aims to bring economic security and yield generation to the XRP ecosystem, much like how EigenLayer has unlocked additional staking yield for Ether. By leveraging staked XRP for economic security, Firelight’s architecture could enable innovative DeFi applications—such as on-chain insurance—that were previously not feasible.

As Hugo Philion, Co-Founder of Flare Network, explains:

“Firelight offers on-chain XRP yield opportunities, both for institutions and retail holders, improving capital efficiency for XRP and further bolstering its utility.”

Looking Ahead

XRP’s growth story is shifting from short-term price cycles to long-term structural evolution. The convergence of regulatory clarity, institutional adoption, and DeFi expansion, driven by platforms like Base, Moonwell, Flare, and Firelight, broadens XRP’s utility and potentially establishes it as a yield-bearing asset.

While it may not yet be a dominant force in DeFi, these developments could strengthen XRP’s role as a bridge between traditional finance and emerging on-chain opportunities.

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