SAN FRANCISCO, April 19, 2026, 10:33 PDT
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson reignited debate over value capture in the XRP ecosystem, arguing that XRP holders aren’t entitled to any stake in Ripple’s expanding business empire. While those comments stirred fresh discussion, Cardano is moving ahead with its own plan to add XRP to its DeFi stack, giving users new ways to trade, lend, or borrow with the token on-chain.
Timing’s key here. XRP was changing hands near $1.43 on Sunday, holding its spot as the fourth-biggest crypto by market cap. Ripple, for its part, has been expanding around XRP—think prime brokerage, custody, and treasury tools for corporate cash and digital assets. Which leads investors to a recurring puzzle: as Ripple scales up, where does the money actually flow?
Speaking with crypto commentator Wendy O, Hoskinson argued that “XRP holders have no legal ownership of those assets.” Ripple brings in profits, he pointed out, but “there is no buyback.” He compared the arrangement to Tether, where users benefit from the platform’s utility but don’t share in the company’s financial upside. Coinpedia Fintech News
Ripple’s disclosures stop short of being explicit, but the message is the same: the company and the token are separate. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for its XRP ETF, 21Shares made it clear that holding XRP offers no claim on Ripple’s earnings or any income distributions. Ripple, for its part, keeps most of its XRP locked up in escrow and puts out quarterly updates on sales and escrow activity.
Bitwise’s latest SEC filing notes XRP’s entire 100 billion supply was minted up front—20 billion went to founders, almost 80 billion to Ripple Labs. That piece of history is exactly what Hoskinson seized on as he repeated his point: Ripple’s tight grip on early XRP supply undercuts any direct link between the company’s value and token ownership.
Ripple isn’t just making noise about expansion. Back in April 2025, Reuters said the company struck a $1.25 billion deal to acquire prime broker Hidden Road, a move that would put Ripple alone among crypto firms offering a global multi-asset prime brokerage platform. Prime brokers like Hidden Road handle clearing, securities lending, and leveraged trade execution for institutional players. Reuters also previously covered Ripple’s $250 million buyout of Swiss custody outfit Metaco. This month, Ripple rolled out treasury software, giving finance teams a tool to manage both fiat and crypto in one place.
Reuters reports Ripple’s acquisition of Hidden Road strengthens RLUSD, the company’s dollar-backed stablecoin, in a landscape still led by Tether and Circle’s USD Coin. That context feeds into Hoskinson’s point—Ripple keeps stacking up fee-generating businesses, building corporate value that isn’t tied solely to its token.
Hoskinson hasn’t stopped reaching out to XRP holders. When a user on X pressed him about the status of XRP DeFi on Cardano, he simply answered, “yes.” He then took a jab, wondering how decentralized things could really be if just one person’s actions or lobbying could derail the whole ecosystem. Crypto Basic
The landscape is getting crowded. Solana is up and running with wXRP, a wrapped XRP token that’s operable on its blockchain, RippleX confirmed, with Hex Trust and LayerZero providing the tech underpinnings. Brad Garlinghouse weighed in on X: “Growing demand for $XRP is driving liquidity cross-chain,” describing this as a market expansion for XRP, not a shift away from it. X (formerly Twitter)
Cardano hasn’t named a launch date yet, and the team still lists its XRP integration as “in development.” Wrapped assets ride on top of custody and interoperability setups—in this case, Hex Trust and LayerZero—which brings its own execution risk, despite the apparent opportunity. Crypto Basic
XRP is hovering around $1.43 at the moment. As Ripple keeps onboarding new businesses tied to the token, the question of who really benefits—shareholders or token holders—keeps coming back every time Ripple grows.
