On The Chain - Blockchain and Cryptocurrency News + Opinion

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

A bug that sat in the XRP Ledger's payment engine for about 10 years could have minted 18 trillion XRP out of nothing, against a fixed supply of 100 billion. Jeff and Chip break down how it worked, who found it, why the fix skipped the usual validator vote, and why it lands right as Evernorth's XRPN is expected to open on the Nasdaq Monday. Plus the $250,000 bug bounty fight, AI guardrails and pen testing, Bitcoin, Ether and Solana ETF outflows, and in the back half: James Carville's meltdown, Bessent's letter to Elizabeth Warren, Europe's migration and military service push, and the UK digital ID fight.

Watch the show: https://youtube.com/live/aiPbhQtB4eY

Show notes: https://onthechain.io/podcast/they-almost-printed-trillions-of-xrp/