BitGo CEO Critiques Ripple’s Strategy at Digital Banking Conference
At the 2025 Digital Banking conference organized by American Banker, BitGo’s CEO, Mike Belshe, took center stage to express his candid opinions on Ripple’s longstanding settlement strategy. He boldly declared that Ripple’s ambition to position XRP as a universal bridge currency has not succeeded. The introduction of Ripple’s new US-dollar stablecoin, RLUSD, serves as evidence of this failure.
Ripple’s Shift to RLUSD: A Sign of XRP’s Declining Relevance
During a discussion focused on banking access for digital-asset enterprises, Belshe advocated for direct Federal Reserve accounts. He then shifted his focus to Ripple’s past, stating, “As a stablecoin business, you may not need it, but wouldn’t you prefer a master account? Having a Fed master account would allow us to bypass traditional banks.”
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Belshe walked the audience through Ripple’s journey, dating back to 2014. “If we rewind the clock by a decade in the realm of digital assets, we encounter Ripple… They initially aimed to revolutionize cross-border payments utilizing their XRP token,” he explained.
He critiqued the dual conversion model—first converting dollars to XRP, followed by pesos—arguing that this additional step led to the plan’s downfall. “Essentially, you’re dealing with two conversions, right? USD stablecoins simply outperform. Ripple’s recent launch of a US-dollar-backed stablecoin underscores this.”
Belshe posited that stablecoins are set to become the global financial infrastructure, gradually eliminating tokens that offer only theoretical bridge liquidity. He illustrated a practical retail example involving phone payments at farmers’ markets and monthly interest airdrops, concluding, “It just works. It’s straightforward. Peer-to-peer combined with peer-to-intermediary transactions.”
Meanwhile, RLUSD is steadily gaining traction. Introduced by Ripple last December after obtaining approval from New York’s Department of Financial Services, the token became part of Ripple Payments by April 2nd, achieving a market capitalization of $244 million. Its issuance on the Ethereum blockchain has continued to drive its supply upward. On June 21st, Ripple minted an additional 14 million RLUSD, pushing circulation toward $450 million. According to CoinMarketCap, the real-time dashboard indicates approximately $429 million in circulation, with daily trading volumes exceeding $84 million.
Ripple’s Perspective on RLUSD
Ripple disputes the notion that the adoption of a dollar token signifies the failure of their bridge token strategy. In a series of blog posts and interviews earlier this year, Ripple’s CTO, David Schwartz, argued that RLUSD provides price-stable working capital while serving as the default auto-bridging asset on the ledger. It facilitates path-finding and liquidity between non-dollar pairs. Community analysts echoed this sentiment on social media, asserting that RLUSD enhances the ecosystem rather than replacing the native coin.
Community Reactions to Belshe’s Remarks
The community’s response to Belshe’s address was polarized. Renowned community figure Crypto Eri (@sentosumosaba) shared the video and commented on social media: “This is the reason XRP needs: 1. SPOT ETFs 2. XRPFi 3. XRP Treasury Strategies 4. More Innovators & Builders. USD Stablecoins lead to fewer discussions and thus dominate the payments landscape.”
Conversely, a critic found humor in the clip, suggesting it validated the long-standing skepticism: “run the juels (@nullpackets) remarked, “Thanks for bringing laughter to your 275K followers on a Sunday morning. We all need more humor. This is XRP comedy gold. Unintentionally posting a video that highlights what we’ve been saying all along—XRP as a bridge currency is cumbersome and unnecessary. Tokenization and stablecoins make bridge currencies obsolete. Study LINK.”
As of the latest update, XRP’s market price stood at $2.02.
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