Stablecoins, as tokenized representations of fiat currency circulating on the blockchain, are undoubtedly the 'killer application' of the crypto market to date. By the end of 2024, this currency operating parallel to traditional financial infrastructure has a total market value exceeding $200 billion. With the rise of stablecoins in the past five years and their deepening integration into the global economy, the potential of blockchain as financial infrastructure will inevitably be tapped and fully utilized by the traditional financial world beyond the crypto market.
VISA believes that stablecoins are a payment innovation with the potential to provide safe, reliable, and convenient payments for more people in more places. While we are still searching for specific data on the use of stablecoins for payments, Ripple, the earliest and most seasoned blockchain payment company in the market, and its token XRP have already seen value discovery and reassessment in the market.
The market always has only one direction, which is neither bullish nor bearish, but the correct direction.
This article aims to outline the trend of stablecoins and the logic behind the value discovery of Ripple XRP. By comparing it with another well-established payment project, PlatON, we seek to find the next XRP, or rather, as the opportunity arises, how should we capture value.
1. The trend of stablecoins.
A16z Crypto recently released the State of Crypto Report 2024, clearly stating that stablecoins have found product-market fit in the past year and have become one of the most apparent 'killer applications' in the Web 3.0 field.
Stablecoins simplify value transfer, enabling rapid global value transfer. Its quarterly transaction volume has already surpassed VISA's $39 trillion by more than double, settling assets worth trillions of dollars annually. In just November 2024, 28.5 million independent stablecoin users sent over 600 million transactions, fully demonstrating its practicality. At the same time, stablecoin users are spread across the globe, as stablecoins provide them with a safe, cheap, and inflation-resistant way to save and consume.
Y Combinator recently stated: Although there is much debate about the practicality of blockchain technology, stablecoins will undoubtedly become an important component of the future of money. Nearly 30% of global remittances are now conducted through stablecoins, and traditional financial institutions like VISA are also providing platforms for banks to issue their own stablecoins. Additionally, Stripe recently acquired a stablecoin startup, Bridge, for $1 billion, which will attract more investor interest and capital into this field.
Mastercard, in its article on the top ten payment trends for 2025, also stated that the maturity of blockchain and digital assets in recent years has proven the transformative potential of this technology in enhancing global financial and commercial systems. Cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and tokenized assets have transitioned from concepts to commercialization, especially in applications related to real-world assets. By 2025, blockchain technology is expected to play a role in improving speed, security, and efficiency, particularly in B2B and commercial payments.
2. The rise of Ripple and XRP.
Whether it is crypto investment institutions, traditional payment networks, or banking systems, they all recognize that value transfer based on blockchain is a reasonable trend for the future development of financial technology, making payments the first application to be prioritized.
Ripple, also known as Ripple Labs, is a blockchain technology company that primarily provides financial service solutions based on blockchain technology, aiming to improve the speed and reduce the cost of global financial transactions. Ripple's main product services include (i) cross-border payments and remittances achieved through RippleNet, which is seen as an alternative to the SWIFT payment network used by traditional financial institutions, and (ii) the recently launched RLUSD stablecoin.
Ripple's technology and services primarily rely on the XRP Ledger (XRPL), which is an independent distributed ledger that provides low transaction costs and high performance for recording and verifying transactions, developed by Ripple in 2012, focusing on providing banking solutions for traditional financial institutions. The native token XRP is classified as a payment cryptocurrency, serving as a medium for paying transaction fees on the XRP ledger, providing a method for using a distributed network rather than centralized storage and value transfer.
Recently, the value of XRP has undergone reassessment, primarily due to the following reasons:
1. Anticipation of changes in the regulatory environment: The Trump administration has led to a market expectation of a more favorable regulatory attitude towards cryptocurrencies, with some supporters of cryptocurrencies taking key positions, which has boosted market confidence in XRP.
2. Positive progress in SEC litigation: Ripple has achieved partial victory in its lawsuit against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), with the judge ruling that XRP is not considered a security when sold to retail investors on exchanges, which is a significant positive for XRP.
3. Increase in ETF and institutional investment: Companies like Grayscale have launched XRP trust products and applied to convert multi-currency funds containing XRP into ETFs, increasing XRP's attractiveness for institutional investment.
4. Enhanced scalability of XRP Ledger: Ripple announces the introduction of advanced programmability, including smart contracts, to XRP Ledger, which will be realized through the introduction of native smart contract functionality and XRPL EVM Sidechain, enhancing the developer ecosystem of XRP Ledger.
5. Launch of RLUSD stablecoin: Ripple announces the launch of RLUSD (Ripple USD), an enterprise-grade stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the US dollar, aimed at enhancing institutional liquidity, trust, and compliance within the Ripple ecosystem.
3. Looking for the next XRP - PlatON.
In such a context, how should we capture the value of projects like XRP?
Currently, blockchain payment projects that have successfully issued tokens mainly focus on: (i) relatively independent Payment Protocol applications; (ii) projects that use their underlying blockchain ledger as a payment settlement network, such as Ripple, Stellar, etc. Market teachers tell us that the value of payment networks will be greater, and the ecosystem will be more expandable. Therefore, we turn our attention to PlatON.
PlatON initially stood out among many public chains with its technical characteristics of 'privacy computing'. After accumulating sufficient technical know-how, it began applying its technological advantages to fields such as payments, providing financial-grade system stability and performance, compliance digital asset management backed by cryptography, and multi-scenario privacy payment and clearing solutions.
In terms of project affiliation, PlatON clearly, like Ripple, belongs to the latter, serving the entire Web 3.0 ecosystem by using the underlying blockchain ledger as a payment settlement network.
LAT is the native token of the PlatON network, primarily used for governance of its decentralized network, payment for the use of computing resources and data services on the payment network, and to incentivize network participants, including node operators and data providers, to maintain and promote the normal operation and development of the network.
TOPOS is an open payment clearing operating system based on PlatON, with its payment core based on Tokenized Money, ensuring that 'Money' in Web 3.0 is self-minted by users and safely completes controlled value transfers through three levels of value locking, payment logic, and authorization mechanisms.
Thus, we can see from PlatON a business structure that is purer than XRP and more capable of reflecting value to LAT:
1. PlatON network for payment clearing (LAT network native token) - XRP network.
2. Open payment clearing system TOPOS - RippleNet.
3. Initiators and promoters of open financial infrastructure LatticeX - Ripple Labs.
It should be noted that Ripple Labs is a private company, and the value of RippleNet and its stablecoin RLUSD cannot be fully reflected in XRP. In contrast, PlatON's business architecture can fully release the value of LAT.
4. How does PlatON capture payment value?
Blockchain provides the technical background conditions for value exchange (Value Transfer) that completely unify information flow and capital flow. However, as Web 3.0 has developed to this point, the current blockchain-based payment architecture still remains at the stage proposed in the early Bitcoin white paper, centered on peer-to-peer transfers as the core clearing rule, and has yet to form a set of clearing and settlement standards that can address various complex payment scenarios and multi-party participation.
Although global payments based on stablecoins have become a reality with enormous potential, the simple logic of peer-to-peer transfers currently cannot support the rich scenarios of stablecoin payments. Furthermore, due to the lack of clearing rule standards on the blockchain, payment transactions still need to disengage from the blockchain ledger and revert to the traditional payment clearing system.
This situation does not truly reflect the original first-principle value of the 'Satoshi Nakamoto proposition', which is also the core issue that needs to be addressed in constructing rich payment scenarios for stablecoins.
Thus, we see that PlatON is not merely a simple peer-to-peer transfer replica built solely on its own channel advantages like most crypto payment projects. PlatON attempts to utilize its network as the 'master ledger' and application platform for future global cross-border payment settlements by establishing a set of clearing rule standards on the blockchain to address the interests distribution among multiple payment participants and complex payment scenarios. TOPOS is the carrier of this set of clearing rule standards.
Building 'VISA of the Web 3.0 era', while the VISA card organization is precisely the highest valued existence in the entire global payment ecosystem. Just as Ripple's RippleNet is viewed as an alternative to the SWIFT payment network used by traditional financial institutions.
Thus, PlatON compensates for the lack of clearing rule standards on the blockchain through TOPOS, and aims to attract multiple parties such as acquiring institutions, wallet institutions, consumers, and merchants by building a mutually beneficial digital currency 'VISA' network to realize the construction of rich payment scenarios.
As the ecological network is gradually built, the network effect will eventually manifest, and the ultimate value will reflect on PlatON and LAT.
5. TOPOS open financial ecosystem, shaping PlatON's payment landscape.
The establishment of a digital currency payment system relies not only on the emergence and widespread adoption of transaction mediums such as stablecoins but also on large payment networks. PlatON is building a large open payment clearing network TOPOS based on blockchain. Through an innovative payment clearing system framework, it aims to reshape global payments in a Web 3.0 manner.
Through an open payment ecosystem, TOPOS can reduce the previously high cross-border payment fees by at least 60%. Merchants and consumers can hold digital assets in a non-custodial manner and rely on acquiring institutions, wallet institutions, and Tokenized Money payment scene standards to complete payments and value exchanges. Each participant in the payment process assumes different roles to complete their work and earn profits.
TOPOS is not only a payment clearing platform on the blockchain but also the foundation of an open financial ecosystem. As an open operating system, it can adapt to different application scenarios and needs, making it easy to integrate new technologies and functionalities.
At the same time, TOPOS is dedicated to building a bridge between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0, breaking down the barriers between traditional financial systems and emerging financial technologies. This means that both traditional financial institutions and emerging blockchain projects can find their place in the TOPOS ecosystem, achieving free flow of funds and seamless transfer of value.
Currently, TOPOS's payment solutions cover stablecoin issuance (TOPOS MINT), cross-border remittance (TOPOS RemiNet), digital currency acquiring, cross-border trade, etc. Anyone can assemble the final payment service on this ecosystem through the underlying blockchain capabilities provided by TOPOS.
In summary, PlatON supports and incentivizes multi-party participation by launching clearing rule standards on the blockchain. Multi-party participation brings about rich payment scenario construction, gradually forming PlatON's network effect, ultimately resulting in the value capture of LAT.
6. Where is PlatON's future breakthrough point?
By establishing a 'VISA of the Web 3.0 era', PlatON allows the value on the transaction chain to remain with network participants, forming an incentive system, rather than returning to the traditional clearing system where it is divided among various intermediaries. Additionally, the complex payment scenarios built through TOPOS can seamlessly integrate with Web 2.0 applications and payment scenarios, achieving cost reduction and efficiency enhancement for applications, as well as better user experience.
Here, PlatON does not merely limit its focus to digital currencies and Web 3.0 on the blockchain. In the long run, all on-chain native innovations to date are a phased manifestation and experience of this long-term trend. The fundamental breakthrough comes from the iterative upgrade of interbank financial infrastructure driven by a large number of actual business needs from Web 2.0.
Therefore, PlatON is focusing on the richer Web 2.0 market, which is the key to the large-scale popularization of the Web 3.0 ecosystem and the fundamental breakthrough of crypto payments!
PlatON founder Sun Liling believes: "The biggest market opportunity in the current and next stage is the comprehensive migration of core teams and applications from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0, similar to the migration of Internet web applications to mobile Internet apps a decade ago. Due to limitations in technology and infrastructure capabilities, the vast majority of core applications from the Web 2.0 era cannot fully migrate to the chain directly, and can only use Crypto technology and incentive mechanism characteristics to handle services such as asset/funds payment, clearing, trading, custody, and verification through public chains and their ecosystems."
Therefore, the core demand is transformed into fiat currency inflow and outflow, and the receipt/payment/transfer of digital currency. This means that the upcoming competition among public chains will not primarily come from on-chain native scenarios, but more from the migration of transactions and user onboarding from the original Internet outside the chain. The only channel for non-Web 3.0 native users to enter is still through the applications/services they are familiar with, and it is highly likely to be a B2B2C path.
In the Web 2.0 era, the global number of retail payment transactions processed each year exceeds 200 trillion. For PlatON, seizing the opportunity of traditional retail gradually transitioning to comprehensive use of digital currencies as a new payment medium, in line with the era background where data ownership and currency ownership belong to the owners themselves as we move from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0, is essential. Building a decentralized open-loop standard like VISA to provide a good infrastructure for the transition of retail from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 is what TOPOS is all about.
This view aligns with what JDI Labs has observed: large influential capital from both the new and old worlds is laying out plans for crypto payments, and discussions about PayTech are becoming increasingly frequent—crypto industry giants like Binance and Coinbase are focusing on crypto payments, while traditional finance such as VISA, Sequoia Capital, and Temasek are also frequently investing in crypto payments. 'After all, if we compare the global payment market to a dream wedding cake, even a tiny crumb falling can create a hundred billion giant, and this gold rush has just begun.'
Doing the right thing and doing things right are equally important. PlatON is undoubtedly a pioneer in this gold rush. As more institutions and partners operate on the TOPOS system, the value of the PlatON network will ultimately manifest.
RippleNet has been under construction for ten years and is already showing results. We will see how the TOPOS system and PlatON network will play out in this favorable environment.
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