Ripple CEO predicts strong growth for XRP and ODL, 2020 ‘was huge’

• Ripple is intensifying its efforts on XRP, with the Asia-Pacific region having the greatest pulling power.
• On-Demand Liquidity and XRP transactions account for approximately 20% of all transactions on RippleNet.

During the opening keynote at this year’s Swell conference, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse underscored the company’s commitment to the XRP token as the “key behind RippleNet”. He revealed that in the three years that RippleNet has been live, over two million transactions with a nominal value of over $7 billion have been completed.

XRP and ODL were used in about 20% of all transactions and had a nominal value of about $2 billion. According to Garlinghouse, XRP and ODL are critical to Ripple’s global expansion and long-term success.

It’s also clear to me that XRP is the key behind RippleNet. Its speed, its scalability and its low cost per transaction make it perfect for instant settlement and exchange of value. It was built for payments. It has real utility; that’s why it works.

Using XRP we launched On Demand Liquidity about two years ago. Actually at Swell 2 years ago. […] Today we have over 2 dozen customers including the likes of MoneyGram, SendFriend, Azimo, Flash FX to name a few. These are customers that are using On-Demand Liquidity in production.

The Ripple CEO also revealed that the company has the greatest pulling power in Asia. As Garlinghouse explained, much of the volume of RippleNet, both sending and receiving, comes from the Asia Pacific region. He further stated that Ripple’s customers are increasingly interested in emerging markets. These include Latin America, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region.

In general, these are regions that have been “largely abandoned” by the traditional correspondent banking system over the past decade. A highlight in terms of on-demand liquidity, which Garlinghouse particularly emphasized, was Azimo. Commenting on the ODL partner and looking back to 2020, the CEO of Ripple stated:

Azimo, who has talked publicly about some of their experiences, have said they’re saving between 30% and 50% when arranging currency transfers between customers in the Philippines and those in the UK and Europe using On-Demand Liquidity. So I think we can say without reservation 2020 has been a huge year for ODL, and we’re continuing to see rapid growth as we enter the back half of 2020. So we’re excited by that interest from customers, we’re excited even in the quarantine customers seeing real value from that.

Garlinghouse also spoke about the Line of Credit (LOC) product announced last week, saying it will help companies massively adapt On-Demand Liquidity and scale their business. With LOC, Ripple has taken a step into the world of financial services to facilitate the adoption of XRP:

It really helps hyper scale companies because they no longer need to take out separate credit agreements in different countries around the world. […] Instead, they can further invest in their business, and they can enable repayment at a later date. This is the evolution of RippleNet. We’re doubling down on XRP and offering financial services on top of the network. The core of our business remains cross-border payments. We’re using digital assets to solve what is clearly a very large problem measured about at 10 trillion dollars globally.

With more than 500 employees now and the recent restructuring, Ripple is better equipped than ever to face the future, Garlinghouse asserted:

I am very confident that we have the best possible team to take Ripple forward. With these new streamline business units, I talked about, RippleNet and RippleX, Ripple is definitely evolving but our DNA remains the same. […] We will continue to be builders and not disruptors. […] As others in this industry have continued to consolidate or lay off employees, we have been able to grow, adding over 50 people just during the quarantine.