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The attractiveness of Ripple USD (RLUSD), XRP and the entire XRP Ledger has been spotlighted by developer Panos Mekras. Taking to his X account, Mekras commended a new incentive program spearheaded by First Ledger to reward RLUSD holders.
XRP Ledger liquidity growing
In less than 24 hours, First Digital had recorded up to $500,000 in XRP liquidity as holders chose to leverage the 12.8% APR offer on the XRP/RLUSD liquidity pool.
The concept of liquidity pools is as old as the first AMM, Uniswap. Users lock up their funds for a period and earn rewards as the funds power various DeFi activities.
According to Mekras, he and his team had a similar idea in 2025 as a way to bootstrap the XRP/RLUSD liquidity pool. However, he noted that the Ripple team felt negatively toward the prospect and largely disregarded its proposal.
As he pointed out, the proposal now appears to be working for First Digital. Since this claim has started generating interest in the community, Mekras clarified in an early post that Ripple has a department for XRP Ledger.
He believes that with one billion XRP earmarked for the community and its builders, there will be a significant change in the ecosystem.
XRP Ledger and DeFi counterparts
Despite the $500,000 raked in as liquidity into First Digital, the entire XRP Ledger is still lagging behind significantly as concerns DeFi adoption.
By a large margin, Ethereum dominates the scene with a Total Value Locked pegged at more than $52.8 billion. This figure compares to XRP Ledger, with less than $47 million.
XRPL is also underperforming in terms of other important metrics like fee generation and active addresses. The recommendation from Panos Mekras for Ripple to support the ecosystem with developer grants is perhaps one of the first steps in positioning for a better market share.