Ayo Akinyele, Head of Engineering at RippleX, recently explained what Ripple is now focusing on as it continues expanding the $XRP Ledger (XRPL).
He shared this during the latest episode of RippleX’s Onchain Economy, where he discussed how blockchain is changing financial infrastructure and what comes next for the XRPL ecosystem.
Akinyele said traditional finance is gradually being rebuilt with blockchain technology. He believes the on-chain economy creates new opportunities by changing how value is defined and transferred.
Notably, he confirmed that, as Head of Engineering at RippleX, his team focuses on building the features that allow financial institutions to develop their solutions directly on-chain.
Ripple Builds Features for Institutional Adoption
Akinyele said RippleX is currently focused on developing features that support several important financial services on the $XRP Ledger.
Traditional finance is not being replaced. It is being re-architected on blockchain rails.
Watch the full episode: https://t.co/cet4vM5rUM
In the latest episode of The Onchain Economy, RippleX Head of Engineering @ja_akinyele explains how the $XRP Ledger is evolving for… pic.twitter.com/hkBvOMOJ70
— RippleX (@RippleXDev) July 14, 2026
These include tokenization, stablecoin payments, token trading on the ledger, and the creation of on-chain financial markets. He said these capabilities help build the internet of value by giving different types of assets more practical use.
He also noted that RippleX has learned from working with financial institutions that many of them prefer infrastructure that closely reflects how they already operate.
Essentially, RippleX aims to rebuild processes on blockchain rails instead of replacing their existing systems.
He added that the decentralized design of the $XRP Ledger provides the shared infrastructure that traditional finance has been missing and also improves reliability, security, accuracy, and operational efficiency.
New Features Move XRPL Beyond Payments
Looking back at developments earlier this year, Akinyele said RippleX introduced features that made permissioned trading possible on the $XRP Ledger.
He called attention to additions such as permissioned domains and permissioned decentralized exchanges (DEXs), and explained that they allow financial institutions to verify the participants involved in their trading activities.
According to him, these features are an important step because they expand the $XRP Ledger beyond settlement and payment use cases.
They also make it possible for regulated institutions to participate in more advanced on-chain financial activities while confirming the identities of those involved in their trading flows.
RippleX Now Moving Toward On-Chain Credit and $RLUSD
After introducing those features, RippleX has turned its attention to on-chain credit, according to Akinyele. He said the team is now working on enabling lending and borrowing against digital assets that represent real-world value.
In addition, RippleX plans to connect these capabilities with $RLUSD, Ripple’s stablecoin. He explained that combining on-chain credit with $RLUSD brings together the key services financial institutions have been looking for.
These include token issuance, token trading, collateral management, credit, and yield generation. He believes that bringing all of these functions together on the $XRP Ledger will create a type of on-chain economy that TradFi has not seen before.
How $XRP Fits Into This Plan
Akinyele also mentioned how $XRP fits into these plans. He said $XRP’s utility comes from Ripple’s effort to build a trusted financial operating system that supports use cases for financial institutions in their day-to-day operations.
He called attention to comments Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has repeatedly made about $XRP being the company’s north star. According to Akinyele, Ripple continues to build around trust, $XRP’s utility, and $XRP’s role in providing liquidity.
He said these features will help financial institutions build real financial markets on-chain and operate at a speed that has not been possible before.
