A fresh bridge has opened between the XRP Ledger and the broader blockchain world. On the sidelines of the Ethereum Community Conference (EthCC), the Axelar Foundation said its network is now carrying wrapped XRP between the XRP Ledger’s mainnet and a brand‑new EVM‑compatible sidechain built by Peersyst with support from Ripple and the wider XRPL community.
The link went live the moment the sidechain debuted, giving developers an immediate route to more than 80 blockchains and letting the sidechain use wrapped XRP as its native gas token.
Transfers travel over Axelar and surface in a clean interface run by Squid, sparing users the usual juggling act of multiple wallets and bridges.
For builders, the appeal is two‑fold. They can keep writing smart contracts in Solidity, the language of choice on Ethereum, while tapping the XRP Ledger’s decade‑old infrastructure, fast block times, modest fees and a validator set that has survived the harsher moments of crypto’s boom‑and‑bust cycles.
More than six million XRP Ledger wallets now sit one click away from DeFi applications that normally live only on EVM chains.
Several projects have already staked a claim. Strobe is rolling out a money market for lending and over‑collateralised borrowing. Securd is chasing passive‑income seekers with a lending model that finances leveraged DeFi positions.
Vertex, best known for its derivatives engine, plans to bring capital‑efficient trading to the network. Under the hood, Blockscout is providing a block explorer while Goldsky handles indexing and data feeds.
The launch also drops a timely tool into the laps of institutions exploring tokenised dollars and other real‑world assets. The XRP Ledger has long pitched itself as a home for regulated finance, and its backers believe EVM compatibility makes that pitch easier.
David Schwartz, Ripple’s chief technology officer and one of the ledger’s original architects, said the sidechain lets teams use familiar EVM tooling while drawing on XRP liquidity.
Georgios Vlachos, who heads the Axelar Foundation, added that banks and fintech firms are actively hunting for reliable cross‑chain rails and the collaboration answers that demand without tinkering with the core XRP network.
With the bridge live and early dApps moving in, the XRP Ledger steps into the multichain era, hoping speed, low costs and a growing list of compliant rails will set it apart from an increasingly crowded field.
Also Read: Ripple and XRP Poised to Lead New Global Monetary System: Analyst
