Panos Mekras, builder and founder of Anodos, the XRP Ledger (XRPL) project, believes the network is stagnant because competition has aggressively spent hundreds of millions of dollars to attract talent, liquidity, and decentralized finance protocols.
The expert points out that he has seen where and why the infrastructure of XRP, the network’s native cryptocurrency, works. Failing to take advantage of its technological potential in a market that does not require bureaucracy.
“We are losing the war of attrition because we are too conservative with our resources,” the expert explains.
“A grant program that takes three months to approve $50,000 and another three months to receive funding is not an engine of growth, but a bureaucracy and Web1 tactic,” Meklas says. For businessmen, current management teams lack the aggressiveness needed to survive in a competitive environment..
The issue of idle funds in the XRP Ledger and its ecosystem
In his view, the XRP Ledger is accumulating idle funds that serve no strategic function. “We’re in a race to survive, and hoarding fuel won’t win the race. Giving up to $200,000 a year to a few projects won’t change anything. “It’s a drop in the ocean and won’t change the trajectory of the network,” experts say.
According to Meklas, the appointed time is over, so it must be done immediately.. “We have been looking at the potential of XRPL for a decade, but 2026 is the year we need to stop talking about what will happen and start making it a reality. “We are at a tipping point and we only have one chance to get it right,” Mekulas says.
In his words, the current state of network activity and liquidity is a “serious wake-up call” that communities and responsible institutions cannot continue to ignore.
Numbers from prolonged stagnation
The data reflects a significant gap between this network and its direct competitors. “There are only a few thousand active users, and the daily trading volume of the network’s decentralized exchanges (DEXs) is often below $10 million.”
in fact, So far in 2026, DEX trading volume will not reach $400,000.. Comparing these numbers to networks such as Ethereum and Solana, the difference is significant, as the latter has a trading volume of $902 million and $3.556 billion, respectively, according to DeFiLlama data.
With total value locked (TVL) of just $69 million after two years of operation, the diagnosis is grim.
“In a world where our competitors have millions of active users and process billions of transactions, we can no longer settle for this level of mediocrity,” he warns.
According to the expert, the goal this year is to be among the top three networks in terms of volume and activity, which “will require active changes in strategy by the community, Ripple, and the XRPL Foundation.”
As reported by CriptoNoticias, Ripple Labs is expanding programs aimed at accelerating the development of financial solutions based on the XPRL network, such as Japan’s Financial Infrastructure Innovation Program and the Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license from the Luxembourg Financial Regulatory Authority, but Meklas believes a change in mindset is needed.
Mekras has plans for XRPL
To reverse this trend, Meklas suggests adopting the following mindset: war chest, A term referring to a reserve of funds intended for rapid and decisive use In situations of conflict or escalation.
“We have to identify them and reward them. construction contractor Existing ones that have proven resilience. These teams have continued to build at the darkest levels of the market and XRPL without proper support. “They shouldn’t be fighting for crumbs, they should be getting injections of millions of dollars to scale up,” he suggests.
This vision includes: Enabling the XRPL Foundation to play a leading role in resource management. «We need an organization that is dedicated solely to the success of the company. construction contractorproviding not only capital but also support to developers, marketing y networking Furthermore, we argue that “massive marketing campaigns and direct user rewards” are needed to energize the ecosystem organically and at an accelerated rate.
Effective use of funds
This expert believes it is “the only realistic way to achieve a ‘decentralized market’.”
of Acquiring external talent is also part of the impact plan. “If teams are building on another network, we need to offer them multimillion-dollar incentives to contribute their knowledge to XRPL.” For members of trusted projects like Aave and Uniswap, “we need to give them what they want in order to deploy the protocol,” he says flatly. The ultimate goal is to unify the infrastructure where technology becomes an invisible but efficient engine.
“We have the rails, we have the speed, and we have one of the safest and most practical architectures in existence. Ripple and the Foundation will stop storing a huge treasure holding millions of dollars in XRP and actually use it to invest heavily and win games. 2026 is the year that XRPL starts to become a world leader. It’s time for all or nothing,” Mekulas concluded.
(Tag translation) Altcoin
