A growing part of the XRP community is paying closer attention to infrastructure changes taking shape on the XRP Ledger, especially as they relate to long-term utility and institutional adoption. 

That context explains why crypto market commentator Brad Kimes, widely known on X as Digital Perspectives, reiterated a long-standing message that continues to resonate with many XRP holders: “Never sell your XRP.” His comment was in anticipation of the upcoming XRPL Lending Protocol.

The comment from Digital Perspectives was a response to a post from Ed Hennis, a software engineer at Ripple, who recently outlined the upcoming proposal for the XRPL Lending Protocol. The proposal introduces fixed-term, fixed-rate, underwritten credit directly at the protocol level of the XRP Ledger. This approach is interesting because it moves lending away from smart-contract layers into a standardized, protocol-native system governed by validator consensus. 

According to the explanation by Ed Hennis, the proposed loans on the XRPL Lending Protocol are going to be done with structured, clear terms, predictable interest, and explicit authorization, features that real-world institutions expect before committing capital. Therefore, Digital Perspectives’ “never sell” message is a reflection of a longer-term view where holders never sell their XRP and instead use them as collateral for loans.

Instead of relying on generalized liquidity pools like most lending protocols, the design of the XRPL Lending Protocol places each loan inside a segregated Single Asset Vault. This structure isolates risk to a specific credit facility and avoids the cross-contamination that has plagued many DeFi lending platforms during periods of market stress. Therefore, the XRPL Lending Protocol reduces execution risk and creates a framework that resembles traditional credit markets more closely than existing crypto lending models.

Most decentralized lending systems today depend on heavy overcollateralization to offset volatility and the risk of anonymity. That approach might work for traders, but it is inefficient for real businesses that operate on predictable cash flows and underwritten credit lines. Enterprises are accustomed to borrowing without locking up more capital than the value of the loan itself, and that mismatch has kept many institutions on the sidelines.

The XRPL’s approach introduces undercollateralized, institutionally underwritten lending alongside existing overcollateralized models. This expands the range of viable borrowers and aligns on-chain credit with how financing actually works in traditional markets.

As noted by Hennis, real-world use cases of XRPL’s lending protocol include market makers borrowing XRP/RLUSD for inventory and arbitrage, Payment Service Providers (PSPs) borrowing RLUSD to pre-fund instant merchant payouts, and fintech lenders accessing short-duration working capital. The feature is slated to be available for voting at the end of January 2026. From there, the voting decision is up to validators on the XRP Ledger. 

Once the lending protocol goes live and XRP begins to play a direct role in institutional credit markets, selling XRP at that stage may be short-sighted.

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