The Rise of the XRPL EVM Sidechain

By Ferran Prat, CEO Peersyst Technology

Jun 16, 2025

It's XRPL's Moment

The XRP Ledger has established itself as a leader in blockchain payments through speed and efficiency, yet its DeFi Total Value Locked remains under 0.05% of market cap. This contrasts sharply with Ethereum's approximately 20% and Solana's around 10% DeFi TVL ratios.

This gap represents significant untapped potential. With XRP gaining regulatory clarity and Ripple forming strategic partnerships, momentum is building within the community around what many call "XRPfi."

Bridging the Gap — A Historical Lens

Programmability — Ethereum's Breakthrough

Ethereum introduced general-purpose smart contracts enabling decentralized applications, though network congestion and high gas fees emerged as drawbacks.

Scalability — Polygon and the Rise of L2s

Layer 2 solutions like Polygon addressed saturation by offloading transactions from mainnet, reducing fees and increasing throughput while maintaining security.

Interoperability — Cosmos and the Multichain Future

Multiple chains created demand for seamless asset exchange. Cosmos pioneered this with IBC, and others followed, making interoperability essential for liquidity scaling.

XRPL EVM: All-in-One

The sidechain delivers three core elements:

• Programmability through full EVM compatibility
• Scalability via offloaded smart contract execution
• Interoperability with Axelar, IBC, and bridges

Every XRP bridged creates a synthetic version locked on mainnet.

Powering Builders

Infrastructure includes:

• Node: Cosmos EVM
• Public RPC: Ripple, Grove
• Indexer: Goldsky
• Explorer: Blockscout
• Oracles: Band Protocol
• Wallets: MetaMask, Keplr, Leap, Cosmostation, Bifrost, and others

These represent proven production systems across major networks.

They Are Coming

Over 90 entities participate across categories:

• DeFi: Moai, Elys, XRise, Strobe, Vertex, Securd, Hammy
• RWAs: Purple Markets
• Launchpads: Rddle.fun, Fomo.biz
• Data & Infra: Range, Goldsky, Band Protocol
• DAOs: XAO.DAO, Nexus.dao
• Others: Capsing, ZNS, Walk it, Gas.zip

Supported wallets onboard millions monthly. Growth has been organic—no incentives or paid marketing across 60 days of testnet.

Reflections on the Path Ahead

"This impact is mostly organic. No incentives, no paid marketing — just 60 days of testnet, and builders came anyway."

Key observations include:

• The 90+ entities represent mostly new XRPL community members or established external companies
• Top-tier talent and projects actively build for XRP
• These entities will contribute growth, infrastructure, and XRP demand upon mainnet launch
• This represents the beginning of sustained ecosystem development
• Full mainnet deployment could unlock significantly more potential

Comparative growth from other ecosystems demonstrates trajectory potential:

• Polygon: $2B–$6B TVL contribution to Ethereum
• Arbitrum: $3B+ TVL
• Optimism: $1.5B+ TVL
• Neon EVM (Solana): 0.5% of Solana's TVL

XRPL EVM matching this growth could generate $600M to $12B in additional TVL, transforming XRP demand dynamics.

How to Get Involved

• 🌐 Explore the website
• 💬 Join 46,000+ on Discord
• Follow us on X

XRPL EVM Sidechain Mainnet is Live 🚀