The XRP Ledger closed 2025 with tangible momentum on several fronts — smart contracts, interoperability and tokenization — but builders say 2026 must prioritize removing user friction, boosting DEX liquidity and funding apps that can scale beyond the core community.
Progress made in 2025
- Smart contracts: Vet, a validator on XRPL’s eligible UNLs, called 2025 “great,” noting the smart-contract alpha testnet has moved from theory to practice. Developers can now deploy and experiment, and community awareness has grown, turning curiosity into early development activity.
- Interoperability: Bridges shipped in earnest. Wormhole and Axelar went live and bridged yield-bearing issued assets to XRPL. Vet pointed to zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) as a likely technical path for more trust-minimized bridging going forward.
- Tokenization: Issuance picked up, led by the RLUSD stablecoin and several smaller stable and tokenized-fund launches. But distribution remains a bottleneck — assets need liquidity, wallet integrations and consumer pathways to drive real utility.
- App layer and UX: Existing wallets and dApps polished features and integrations, improving retention. However, there was no single “killer” app that captured the broader community and drove new waves of adoption.
- DeFi activity: After a meme-coin-fueled burst coming out of 2024, DeFi activity cooled across 2025. Still, baseline DEX activity is higher than before, which Vet framed as a foundation to build on in 2026.
Builders’ wishlist for 2026
Anodos Finance co-founder and CEO Panos Mekras laid out concrete priorities for the year ahead: ship batch transactions and sponsored fees/reserves (critical for reducing friction and enabling mass consumer onboarding); attract more high-quality assets, especially real-world-assets (RWAs) such as yield-bearing stablecoins, tokenized stocks and commodities; and launch a serious incentive/grant program backed by XRPL Foundation resources to fund developer tools and consumer apps that can bring millions of users. He also flagged DEX/AMM liquidity as a “serious issue” constraining growth. Vet publicly agreed with those priorities.
Why these things matter
- Batch transactions and sponsored fees/reserves lower onboarding friction and reduce costs for end users, essential for consumer-facing use cases.
- Stronger distribution and liquidity turn token issuance into usable money inside apps and DEXs.
- Bridges that minimize trust through ZKPs would reduce counterparty risk and improve cross-chain composability.
- Grants and incentives help move projects from niche community tools to mainstream products.
Market snapshot
At press time, XRP traded at $1.86.
Outlook
XRPL’s 2025 advances make 2026 a year for execution: turning alpha releases and bridge integrations into smooth user experiences, deeper liquidity and funded, scalable apps. If the ecosystem addresses the practical bottlenecks builders identified — user friction, distribution, liquidity and funding — the network could translate technical progress into broader adoption.
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