On The Chain - Blockchain and Cryptocurrency News + Opinion

XRP slipped under $1 on Friday for the first time since August, after nine straight red days and $330M liquidated across crypto in two hours. Jeff and Chip dig into who actually sold. The spot XRP ETFs barely moved, and wallets holding 1 million+ XRP hit their highest count of 2026. Meanwhile Ripple is on track for $900M a year, has its national trust bank charter, and RLUSD added $972M in 90 days. So why is XRP sitting at 99 cents? Spot XRP ETFs turn one: over 1 billion XRP held, $1.152B in net assets, and a $1.09M net outflow on Nov 13.Marble's $11M seed round, with Ripple among the backers.Grok's stablecoin ranking puts USDD first and RLUSD third.The "Make XRP Great Again" open letter to Brad Garlinghouse, and Chip's reply: Ripple owes you nothing.SBI's Yoshitaka Kitao is asked if he still trusts XRP.Also: the biggest POW exchange of the Ukraine war, Stephen A. Smith's interview with Trump, Dominik Tarczyński at the European Parliament, Hakeem Jeffries heckled by his own side, and the soft launch of Badassery streetwear. Watch the full show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rkT7J2ZzLk Show notes: https://onthechain.io/podcast/whales-are-grabbing-xrp-under-1/ Not financial advice.

David Schwartz, the CTO Emeritus who helped write the XRP Ledger, says he went from about 26 million XRP to about 3 million and sold nearly all his Bitcoin and ETH too. He calls it risk tolerance, with sales set on written plans 30 days ahead through an attorney, and he still holds Ripple stock. The news landed with XRP at $1.05, its lowest since August and down almost 20% on the week. Jeff and Chip walk through what he actually said, and why one of his own posts argues against the panic. Also: RLUSD transfer volume on the XRP Ledger went from $2.2B in January to $20.1B in October, PNC pilots stablecoin payments with Coinbase, Bruce Fenton and John Deaton on tokenized shares, Squid Router at XRP Seoul, and a first look at the new Badassery streetwear site. In Geopolitics: the midterm fallout, the voter-roll numbers, Rubio's 2015 Iran warning, Lincoln and the Insurrection Act, and why Republicans have two months to pass everything. Show notes and links: https://onthechain.io/podcast/he-sold-23-million-xrp/

BlackRock says that in 12 months some on-chain markets will be deeper than traditional markets, and Jeff and Chip ask the question every XRP holder should be asking: is that window yours? Chip, fresh off Ripple's Swell in New York, walks through the Platinum Summit two doors down from BlackRock's Hudson Yards office, his run-in with Jack McDonald, and the September RLUSD attestation showing distribution on Coinbase and Robinhood and institutional use at BNY, Standard Chartered and DriveWealth. Flare joins the XRPL Foundation's recommended validator list as Anodos steps away, John Lilic lays out how $35B a week settling on the XRP Ledger could flip ETH, and with XRP at $1.25 and down 50% on the year, the chat asks: is this the bottom? Then geopolitics with the midterms two days out: Mike Waltz shuts down Cuba at the UN, the path to the Senate majority, Haley Stevens crosses over to endorse Mike Rogers in Michigan, Fetterman torches Abdul El-Sayed, and Dave Rubin's AI short on the DSA. Go vote Tuesday. Watch: https://youtube.com/live/tUrwALR0VcI Show notes: https://onthechain.io/podcast/xrp-holders-do-you-have-12-months/

Chip is back from Ripple's Swell in New York with a firsthand debrief. With the U.S. Treasury Secretary on stage beside Brad Garlinghouse and the midterms days away, Jeff and Chip break down why XRP just became Washington's problem, and why the crypto rules being written now may be harder to undo than people think. • Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's surprise sit-down with Brad Garlinghouse, and the Democratic strategist who said the CLARITY Act likely stalls if Democrats win back Congress. • Chip's conversation with Ripple Chief Legal Officer Stu Alderoty on why new SEC rulemaking would be hard for a future SEC chair to reverse. • Brad Garlinghouse on why XRP is still at the heart of Ripple, and how RLUSD on the XRP Ledger brings liquidity back to XRP. • Matt Damon and Water.org: Ripple Payments and RLUSD powering water microloans with a 98%+ repayment rate. • Inside Swell: The Shed at Hudson Yards, the XRP subway train under Times Square, and Stefan Thomas revealing he now owns Coil. • Also in the back half: the Binance hack and why you never keep your whole stack in one place. Watch and read more: https://onthechain.io/podcast/xrp-just-became-washingtons-problem/

With all the attention on RLUSD, where does that leave XRP? At Ripple Swell 2026, Brad Garlinghouse answered it: XRP is still Ripple's North Star, and about half of all RLUSD is now issued on the XRP Ledger. Jeff flies solo with Chip on the ground in New York: Robinhood and Bitstamp, Evernorth on $400B in tokenized assets, RedotPay, AI agents moving money with AWS, Stripe and Mastercard, XRPL smart features, and the XRP TipBot's return on Xahau. Plus geopolitics: Venezuela oil lands in Texas, the methane rollback, a $1M voter fraud reward, and Trump's answer to Obama. Watch the show: https://youtu.be/OvObNVHDIDM Badassery Coffee: https://badasserycoffee.com X: @On_The_Chain @Jeff_OnTheChain @stephenchip Not financial advice. For informational and entertainment purposes only.

For years XRP was the piece Wall Street pushed around the board, sacrificed first and written off every time. Not anymore. Jeff and Chip break down the XRP Ledger Hackathon, FOUNDERS Episode 4, JoelKatz taking on the City of Toronto, and Chip getting shut out of Swell Demo Days. Then the geopolitics: the No Kings rally, liberty versus force, Trump's Michigan rally and the El-Sayed Senate fight, Audi building SUVs in Georgia, Brazil's election, Israel's election, and France's immigration crisis. Watch the full show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WXkMzJx1IA

Wall Street is working out how to make real money from digital assets, and Ripple wants to sell it the plumbing. Jeff and Chip follow the money to the question XRP holders care about: when the banks and Ripple get paid, does any of it reach the people holding the token? Ripple spotlights a Boston Consulting Group report estimating a regional bank with a $200-300B balance sheet could add up to $100M to its P&L by pairing digital-asset services with the right custody setup. It's a modelled estimate, not booked profit.- Arf brings settlement liquidity to the XRP Ledger, using RLUSD for short-term working capital for licensed payment firms, and Jeff on why RLUSD volume and XRP value are not the same thing.- XRP finally gets its own @XRP handle and xrp.org, and Stuart Alderoty files Ripple's comment letter on the SEC's proposed crypto rules.- Coinbase research: stablecoins settled roughly $35T on-chain in 2025, but only about $390B of it was real payments.- Bit Water: a $900 water-heater element that mines Bitcoin, and the math on whether it ever pays for itself.- Also in the back half: Amy Acton's own mother cuts an ad against her, Trump warns Europe over NATO, Rubio names Iran as the Middle East's core problem, Elizabeth Warren on billionaire money, and France burns while Macron blames Trump. Watch the full show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdik2xa1nss

XRP holders want to get paid, but who pays? Jeff and Chip follow the money through Firelight, the Flare-based protocol now offering onchain cover for a Kraken DeFi Earn strategy. Stakers earn rewards for backing that protection, and a confirmed covered loss can hit their stake. Firelight's Jesus Rodriguez explains why XRP, which never had a native yield, makes cheaper insurance capital for DeFi than ETH insuring ETH. Also: Flare's Hugo Philion on Flare as the blockchain for data, DriveWealth using Ripple's RLUSD on the XRP Ledger, Swell 2026 in New York, XRPL Africa turning one, why the dollar wins the stablecoin race, how hackers pick DeFi targets, and why Main Street needs insured crypto. In the back half: Spencer Pratt on America, Greta Thunberg and France's riots, Macron, and Warsaw vs Paris. Watch the show: https://youtube.com/live/y63_tL54reY Show notes and links: https://onthechain.io/podcast/xrp-holders-getting-paid/

Stripe just came for XRP. Privy, the wallet company Stripe owns, is partnering with Ripple to put embedded wallets on the XRP Ledger, so developers can drop XRP and RLUSD straight into their apps. Jeff and Chip walk through what that opens up, then connect it to a week where the big names kept lining up behind the ledger. Standard Chartered is now custodying RLUSD on the XRP Ledger through its DIFC branch.Evernorth named Ripple, Coinbase, Kraken and BitGo as execution partners to put its 473M XRP treasury to work.France is weighing a 31.4% tax on crypto-to-stablecoin conversions.An HSBC whistleblower's letter to Scott Bessent lands the same week Treasury hits Bank of America with $1.21B in penalties, and the guys run through a decade of bank fines while Elizabeth Warren keeps blaming crypto.A viewer's Japanese XRP candy gets a live taste test.Also in the back half: Blakeman vs. Hochul, Jewish voters breaking from New York Democrats, the midterm Senate map, why sitting out the election costs your crypto bag, why third parties lose, and U.S. vs. Europe innovation.

MetaLawMan, securities lawyer James Murphy, joins Jeff and Chip to answer the question XRP holders keep asking: if XRP won, why hasn't the market treated it like clarity? His answer is that the US still has no crypto law passed by Congress. XRP is well positioned after Judge Torres's ruling and the SEC's interpretive guidance naming it one of 16 tokens that are commodities, not securities, but guidance can change with the next administration. We get into why a statute beats SEC guidance, the coming courtroom irony where the SEC has to make Gensler's own argument, what's next after Clarity stalled, the exchange protections Democrats voted down, and how the banks shaped the bill. Also: Deaton vs. Markey debate clips, including Markey's Siri-or-Claude answer on AI, and why MetaLawMan is all in on John Deaton. Guest: MetaLawMan - https://www.metalawman.io/ - https://x.com/metalawman Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kop27ReIw4w