Institutional custodian Hex Belief introduced the launch of Wrapped XRP (wXRP) on Thursday, deploying the token throughout Ethereum, Solana, Optimism, and HyperEVM with $100 million in preliminary liquidity.
The transfer goals to anchor Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin pairs on EVM chains. XRP remained flat on the information, whereas RLUSD provide held regular at 1.3 billion.
The Sign: XRP Liquidity vs. Safety
Hex Belief’s wXRP enters a crowded market already fragmented by Coinbase’s cbXRP and Axelar’s eXRP. The $100 million seed capital is meant to assist buying and selling pairs instantly, thereby eliminating the “chilly begin” drawback that usually accompanies new wrapped belongings.
The construction is a normal 1:1 custodial mannequin: Hex Belief holds the native XRP; customers get the IOU. Whereas this allows DeFi composability, it reintroduces the only level of failure—the custodian—that the XRP Ledger was constructed to get rid of.
The Danger Vector
The timing is precarious. Bridge and custodian exploits had been the wrongdoer behind over 50% of all crypto losses within the first half of 2025. By transferring XRP off its native ledger, holders swap protocol safety for good contract danger.
Hex Belief makes an attempt to mitigate this through LayerZero’s Omnichain Fungible Token (OFT) normal, which theoretically reduces assault surfaces in comparison with conventional “lock-and-mint” bridges. But, the massive prize for hackers stays: $100 million sitting in a single custodial pockets.
The Institutional Take: Can XRP Actually go to Zero?
Whereas the headline is the $100M liquidity, the true story is the fragmentation of XRP liquidity. We now have three main artificial XRP variants (cbXRP, eXRP, wXRP) competing for a similar DeFi flows.
For desks, this creates arbitrage alternatives however fractures deep liquidity. Count on spreads to widen throughout these variants till a transparent winner emerges. The true danger isn’t the wrapper—it’s the bridge. If the Hex Belief multisig is compromised, wXRP goes to zero, whatever the underlying asset’s well being.
The submit Hex Belief’s Excessive-Stakes Wrapped XRP Gambit: $100M Liquidity Infusion Fuels Bridge Exploit Fears appeared first on Cryptonews.