Now That XRP is Dead, What’s Next? Swift Executive Calls Ripple a Dead Chain Walking

Ben Graham · September 2, 2025

XRP price and DeFi activity are under fire again, with Swift’s Chief Innovation Officer Tom Zschach, calling Ripple a ‘dead chain walking’

“Surviving lawsuits isn’t resilience. Neutral, shared governance is,” Zschach wrote in a LinkedIn post. “

He continued: “Institutions don’t want to live on a competitor’s rails. Compliance isn’t about one company convincing regulators it should be allowed to operate. It’s about an entire industry agreeing on shared standards that no single balance sheet controls.”

Now That XRP is Dead, What’s Next? Swift Executive Calls Ripple a Dead Chain Walking - ExpertFX School — (Source: LinkedIn)

You can type aggressively on your keyboards, but Zschach’s comment highlights a growing belief in traditional finance that stablecoins and networks like Circle’s USDC are better positioned to become the backbone of next-generation settlement systems.

Moreover, XRP’s DeFi picture is dying compared to Ethereum, Solana, Sui, and SEI crypto. Should you be worried as an XRP trader?

XRP DeFi Struggles: Why Are Ethereum and Solana Leaving Ripple Behind? (Ethereum at $96.9Bn vs XRP at $87M)

The numbers paint a difficult picture for XRP. According to DeFiLlama, the XRP Ledger (XRPL) has a total value locked (TVL) of just $87.85 million, with daily decentralized exchange volume below $70,000.

Compare this to Ethereum, which dominates DeFi with $96.9 billion TVL, or Solana with $11.27 billion TVL. Coinbase’s Base chain, which has only been active since 2023, has already pulled in nearly $5 billion in total value locked. It’s a stark reminder of how far XRP trails its peers.

Data from TheBlock tells a similar story in derivatives. XRP’s futures open interest remains a fraction of Ethereum’s or Solana’s, reflecting weak institutional participation. The gap points to an ecosystem still struggling to generate the kind of network effects that draw developers and large enterprises.

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Can XRP Development Save Ripple’s Network From Decline?

Ripple has introduced upgrades to stimulate XRPL usage, including:

Automated Market Makers (AMMs) with new liquidity pools.
RLUSD, Ripple’s own stablecoin, alongside Circle’s launch of a native USDC on XRPL.
An EVM sidechain to improve Ethereum compatibility.

According to community figures, growth depends less on hype and more on builders driving projects forward. Adam Kagy, co-founder of an NFT marketplace, put it bluntly: “Enterprises will not build on networks with little retail participation or on-chain activity.”

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Does XRP Still Have a Future in Enterprise Blockchain Adoption?

XRP

Price

Market Cap

XRP

$165.47B

24h7d30d1yAll time

How anyone thinks Ripple is anything but centralized is truly a mystery.

It’s why former Ripple CBDC advisor Antony Welfare stressed the importance of enterprise-grade infrastructure. He pointed to Hyperledger Besu, which processes 10% of Ethereum transactions, as proof that reliability drives institutional trust.

For XRP, the challenge is clear: It must show it can handle high-throughput, enterprise-level adoption without centralization risks. Otherwise, the rise of stablecoins and compliance-friendly competitors will wreck it.

EXPLORE: Can ETF Approval Push Ripple to $7? Why Analysts See $4 and $7 as the Next XRP Price Predictions

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Key Takeaways

Now that XRP is dead, what’s next? That’s not our question, but the one of Tom Zschach, Chief Innovation Officer at Swift Re-Inventing
According to community figures, growth depends less on hype and more on builders driving projects forward.

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