What happened
VanEck's digital assets research team placed the XRP Ledger at the top of a corporate blockchain ranking on Friday, ahead of JPMorgan's Kinexys network and Coinbase's Base layer-2, per a CryptoNews writeup of the asset manager's note. The piece cites the firm's framework, which scores chains on institutional integrations, tokenization activity, and live settlement use rather than the more familiar mix of TVL and developer count. VanEck's crypto research lead Matthew Sigel has previously argued that enterprise utility is the underrated leg of the bull case for XRP, and the ranking lands within that thesis. The note arrived at 18:13 UTC, a Friday slot that typically gets thin trading coverage but heavy weekend social pickup.
XRPL was selected over Kinexys, the rebranded Onyx network JPMorgan launched in late 2024 to settle institutional repo and FX flows, and Base, the Coinbase-backed Ethereum layer-2 that crossed $4 billion in TVL earlier this year. Neither JPMorgan nor Coinbase has responded publicly to the ranking. Ripple's communications team has not posted a statement at time of writing.
Why it matters
This is the first time a registered U.S. asset manager with a live spot ETF business has publicly graded XRPL above the two most-cited enterprise chains in American banking. VanEck issues HODL, the spot Bitcoin ETF, and has filed for spot XRP exposure. That makes its research output a signal rather than a side project, and it lands while the SEC's review window for the firm's XRP product is still open.
The headline reads bullish for XRP holders. The flow picture is thinner. XRPL trails both Base and Solana on weekly active addresses and DEX volume, and Kinexys settles real bank balance sheet trades that no public chain has matched. VanEck's framework reads that gap as a feature rather than a problem, weighting compliance posture and bank-grade integrations heavily. Whether other Wall Street desks adopt the same lens is the question worth tracking.
