Swift Exec Calls XRP ‘Dead Chain Walking’ as DeFi Lags

Published: 2025-09-02 14:29:00 |

Swift’s CIO Tom Zschach criticized Ripple’s XRP ledger as “dead chain walking”, questioning its resilience beyond surviving lawsuits. He argued that financial institutions prefer networks with neutral, shared governance and compliance standards, favoring stablecoins like USDC for next-gen settlement. Data from DeFiLlama shows XRP’s TVL at just $87.85 million, with daily DEX volume under $70,000. By contrast, Ethereum leads DeFi with $96.9 billion TVL and Solana follows with $11.27 billion. Coinbase’s Base chain also boasts nearly $5 billion. XRP’s derivatives open interest and institutional participation remain weak compared to ETH and SOL, highlighting limited network effects. Ripple aims to boost usage via AMMs, its stablecoin RLUSD, native USDC, and an EVM sidechain. However, experts note that enterprise adoption hinges on on-chain activity and decentralization. Without significant growth in DeFi and compliance-friendly upgrades, XRP faces pressure from stablecoins and rival blockchains.

Bearish

Swift’s public criticism of XRP as a “dead chain walking” and data showing minimal DeFi TVL and low institutional interest create negative sentiment around XRP. Traders may shift focus to blockchains with stronger network effects like Ethereum and Solana or to compliance-friendly stablecoins such as USDC. Historical precedents—such as past legal uncertainties causing price declines—suggest that this undermining of confidence could trigger short-term selling pressure on XRP. In the long run, unless Ripple delivers on upgrades and improves on-chain activity, market capitalization and trading volume are unlikely to recover, making the outlook bearish.