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Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has reacted to XRP's recent interoperability milestone on Solana. Wrapped XRP (wXRP) went live on Solana, enabled by Hex Trust and Layer Zero.
"Growing demand for XRP is driving liquidity cross-chain, opening new paths across ecosystems and expanding the overall market," Garlinghouse wrote in a tweet in reaction to the milestone.
XRP utility has expanded on Solana with wXRP, allowing individual users and institutions alike to gain access to the token through the wrapped token issued by Hex Trust.
Authorized users can send native XRP to Hex Trust, which then mints wXRP tokens on Solana or supported Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) blockchains such as the Ethereum mainnet, Optimism or HyperEVM.
First announced in December, the move opens up the use of XRP beyond XRP Ledger, increasing its use in market-making and decentralized finance (DeFi) on Solana.
What comes next as XRP's institutional era arrives
In a tweet, Ripple stated that XRP's institutional era is now, supported by ETFs. For years, legal uncertainty kept institutional capital away from XRP, but regulatory clarity has arrived now. Futures markets have launched, with the path to institutional access now opened.
Ripple believes that the XRP ETF market is still young. While seven U.S. spot ETFs with $1.53 billion in AUM and 773 million XRP tokens in custody represent meaningful progress, there is still plenty of room to grow. The JPMorgan prediction of $4 to 8.4 billion in first-year inflows has not yet been tested by a full bull cycle.
It is believed that the product landscape will also continue to evolve. ARK Invest has allocated nearly 20% of its CoinDesk 20 ETF to XRP, making it the third-largest holding.
And as XRP Ledger's technical road map advances through 2026, through confidential multi-purpose tokens, XRP's utility proposition for institutions becomes more compelling.
Dan Burgin
U.Today Editorial Team
