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Former Ripple executive Anthony Welfare has broken silence on the impact of CBDCs experiment for XRP Ledger's development.
From 2021 to 2024, Ripple became increasingly active in the development of central bank digital currencies.
In 2021, Ripple announced its partnership with the Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan and the Republic of Palau for CBDC pilots.
Fast forward to 2023, Ripple announced CBDC partnerships with Montenegro and Columbia central banks. That same year, Ripple revealed a platform dedicated to central bank digital currencies powered by XRP Ledger.
This year, 2025, marked a significant shift for Ripple as it highlighted a new focus for its operations. In February 2025, Ripple unveiled a major redesign of its website that made no mention of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), which sparked speculation that the company was stepping back from CBDC initiatives or simply keeping a low profile amid the U.S. anti-CBDC stance.
Former Ripple executive weighs in
While Ripple seems to have shifted focus presently from CBDCs, former Ripple executive Anthony Welfare, in a recent tweet, hinted that its prior efforts and engagement with CBDCs might not be a waste.
According to Welfare, "The entire CBDC work was very important to learn what the Central banks wanted and how the commercial banks are key, hence Stablecoins as the main focus." This was essential as it prepared XRP Ledger ahead for the current advancements it is seeing.
Welfare stated, "The learnings in the 2021 to 2024 period greatly impacted XRPL development from both Ripple and the wider partner ecosystem, like you have twigged a very important time for preparing XRPL for the current world we live in and the exponential growth of Stablecoins we are seeing."
Ripple launched its institutional-grade stablecoin Ripple USD (RLUSD) in December 2024, on XRP Ledger and Ethereum blockchains.
Welfare indicated a current focus on interoperability, noting that CBDCs, stablecoins and tokenized deposits need to work together to make them easier to use.
Dan Burgin
Vladislav Sopov
U.Today Editorial Team