A former Ripple executive is speaking out about how the firm’s previous work with central bank digital currencies, also known as CBDCs, may help XRP’s growth. Welfare also pointed out that the next step is making CBDCs, stablecoins, and other forms of digital money work together. If this happens, XRP could benefit and play a bigger role in the market.
Ripple’s CBDC Pilots Shaped XRP Ledger Development
In a post shared on X, Anthony Welfare, who worked as an adviser for the fintech company, explained that Ripple’s CBDC trials between 2021 and 2024 had a significant impact on the XRP Ledger. The first trials began in 2021 with Bhutan and Palau. By 2023, Ripple had also formed partnerships with the central banks of Montenegro and Colombia. In the same year, the company announced a platform designed for central bank digital currencies, built on top of the XRP Ledger.
According to Welfare, the lessons from this period directly shaped the XRP Ledger’s ability to support stablecoins, which are now gaining popularity, as well as new forms of digital payments that people and businesses increasingly want each day. He said the experiments were not a waste, even though Ripple is no longer speaking as much about CBDCs.
CBDC Lessons Drive Current Focus On Stablecoins
By 2025, Ripple’s public approach began to change. In February this year, the company redesigned its website and made no mention of CBDCs, a move that fueled speculation it was pulling back from that area. Still, Welfare insists that even with Ripple’s 2025 website update, which leaves out any mention of CBDCs, it does not mean the earlier work has no value. The knowledge gained during those years has prepared the XRP Ledger to support stablecoins, which are now growing at record speed.
In December 2024, Ripple entered this space with the launch of Ripple USD (RLUSD), its own institutional-grade stablecoin, on both the XRP Ledger and the Ethereum blockchain, indicating that the fintech company could be targeting a broader range of use cases.
According to Welfare, the reason Ripple could move into stablecoins so strongly is because of the lessons it had learned during the CBDC years, which he says laid the groundwork for the growth of stablecoins that the market is now experiencing. Welfare said XRP’s future depends on interoperability, where CBDCs, stablecoins, and tokenized deposits can work together.
He explained that networks capable of connecting different types of digital money will lead the way, and that Ripple’s earlier CBDC pilots had prepared the XRP Ledger for this future. In his view, CBDCs, stablecoins, and tokenized deposits must work in tandem so that users can easily transfer money between them. He suggested that the XRP Ledger is already well-positioned for this future due to the foundation Ripple laid in its CBDC pilots.
