Ripple statement about XRP and RlUSD. Is disingenuous. If RLUSD did not exist XRP would have been used for all payments. Read below. Ripple’s core plan from the start (company founded 2012, XRP Ledger launched 2012) was to use XRP as a bridge currency for cross-border payments. This was the foundation of products like On-Demand Liquidity (ODL, formerly xRapid), which converted fiat → XRP → destination fiat to avoid pre-funding nostro accounts. ODL went commercial around 2018–2019 (e.g., MoneyGram partnership). RLUSD, Ripple’s USD stablecoin, was not launched until December 2024—more than a decade later. Ripple has since described the two as complementary, but the original and long-standing payments strategy centered on XRP. That payment standings shifted to RLUSD! Partially true, but not a full replacement. Ripple’s payments platform has expanded so that many flows now settle in RLUSD (or other stablecoins/fiat) rather than requiring XRP as the bridge asset. New institutional deals (e.g., with Arf, Cross River, and others) frequently specify RLUSD for settlement and liquidity, especially for dollar-denominated or stable-value use cases. Ripple Payments cumulative volume is approaching $150B, and RLUSD has grown to a ~$2.6B market cap. However, Ripple (including CEO Brad Garlinghouse at Swell 2026) maintains that this is not a shift away from XRP. Official statements describe the two as complementary: • RLUSD is preferred for stable USD settlement. • XRP is still used as a bridge for cross-currency liquidity (especially less liquid corridors) and remains the native asset of the XRP Ledger (required for fees and reserves). Garlinghouse has repeatedly said the company “will never give up on XRP” and will not pursue actions it believes harm the XRP ecosystem. The strategy evolved from the earlier “all roads lead to XRP” positioning to a multi-asset platform that includes RLUSD as a major option.