A recent announcement from JPMorgan regarding its use of the XRP Ledger for settling a tokenised US Treasury bond has been misinterpreted by some as evidence that the bank is adopting XRP as a settlement currency or partnering with Ripple. However, the pilot transaction was a one-time test and does not indicate any such partnership or adoption.
The pilot involved Ondo Finance, Kinexys (a J.P. Morgan subsidiary), Mastercard, and Ripple in settling an RLUSD tokenised US Treasury bond across borders. The transaction was completed in under five seconds and highlights the potential for interoperability between private banking infrastructure and public blockchains.
It is worth noting that the asset leg of the transaction ran via RLUSD, a dollar stablecoin issued by Ripple, rather than XRP itself. XRP was only used to cover minimal network fees, which were in the cent range per transaction. This configuration means little for demand for the token and no direct price impulse emerged as a result.