The true value of XRP: Why infrastructure capability is more important than ownership

In discussions about digital assets, a common misconception is: who holds the tokens determines the value of the asset. But Brad Garlinghouse’s recent remarks challenge this ingrained perception. He points out that the significance of XRP is not about who owns it, but what it can connect.

Clarifying the Identity: Ripple and XRP are Different

Many people confuse a basic fact — claiming “XRP has a CEO.” But Garlinghouse straightforwardly responds: “Ripple is the company with a CEO, which is me. And the XRP ecosystem has dozens, even hundreds, of other founders building products.”

This distinction is important. Ripple Inc. uses XRP as a component of its products but does not own or control the entire ecosystem. XRP has long been an independent network operating on the XRP Ledger (XRPL), beyond the jurisdiction of any single organization.

The Real Operation of Decentralized Governance

The governance design of XRPL perfectly exemplifies this. Any protocol updates require support from an absolute majority of participants to be activated. Garlinghouse mentioned a key example: “We opposed some proposed open-source XRP technical improvements, but they still passed. That’s okay — that’s the nature of open-source technology.”

In other words, Ripple’s opinions do not dictate the evolution of the ledger. This is strong evidence that XRP, as infrastructure, not corporate asset, stands independently.

Connectivity Beyond Ownership

In the long-term narrative of digital finance, the value of crypto assets depends on what they can achieve, not who owns them.

What does this mean for XRP? Garlinghouse clearly states: “Ripple uses XRP in its product stack, but dozens of other companies are developing applications around the XRP ecosystem.” The richness of the ecosystem is the real driver of value. In the context of cross-border payments and financial interoperability, value is realized through liquidity, throughput, and network coverage — not simply token scarcity or distribution structure.

Insights for Different Participants

Investors need to reassess their evaluation criteria: don’t just focus on token supply or short-term volatility, but on the network’s actual capability to facilitate cross-border value transfer, interoperability, and institutional adoption.

Developers and institutions should shift toward: creating services integrated with XRPL infrastructure, enhancing liquidity and network effects, rather than merely accumulating tokens.

Underlying Logic

In the world of digital assets, truly successful infrastructure often doesn’t look so flashy. XRP’s story has never been about ownership, but about connectivity — a protocol serving as the backbone for global value exchange. Understanding “what it can connect” is far more meaningful than “who owns it.”