# Schwartz Says XRPL Financial Success Is Unlikely Without XRP Demand and Value

By Sonny Jang

Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/people/39972
Published: 2026-10-24T12:40:10.000Z
Updated: 2026-10-24T12:40:10.000Z
Section: People

> He tied his view to XRP’s required use for fees and account reserves, but offered no figures measuring financial-app adoption or its effect on demand.

Ripple CTO emeritus David Schwartz said Friday, Oct. 23, that he sees little chance of the XRP Ledger becoming highly successful in financial applications while its native asset, XRP, lacks strong demand and value. He tied that view to XRP’s required role in operating the ledger, though those rules alone do not show how much financial activity runs on XRPL.

Schwartz’s argument centers on two protocol requirements: transactions pay fees in XRP, and accounts must meet XRP reserve requirements. These give XRP a role in routine ledger operations, but do not establish how widely financial services use XRPL or whether that activity is growing.

The minimum fee for a standard transaction is 10 drops, or 0.00001 XRP, and the fee is destroyed. On Mainnet, the base reserve is 1 XRP, with an additional 0.2 XRP for each owner-reserve item. Validator voting can change reserve requirements, so those amounts may be revised.

Schwartz also described a hypothetical in which Bitcoin (BTC) becomes the leading settlement asset while XRPL carries wrapped or bridged Bitcoin. In that scenario, he said, XRP could still have a role connecting assets. He presented this as a possibility, not a description of current XRPL usage.

The remarks also addressed XRP’s possible role if XRPL’s financial use grows.

Schwartz gave no adoption figures or price target. The fee and reserve rules describe XRP’s place in XRPL operations; they do not quantify financial-app activity or show that it is increasing demand or market value.