The idea of a cryptocurrency like XRP competing directly with global banks once sounded unrealistic, but that line is starting to blur. Ripple, the payments technology company behind XRP, has spent recent months pushing deeper into payments, liquidity, custody, and treasury infrastructure with acquisitions. This has seen the role of XRP changing from a settlement token into something that increasingly mirrors core banking functions. The question is no longer whether Ripple can coexist with global banks, but what changes if it begins competing head-on with them. A Strategic Challenge For Banks Recent acquisitions and commentary across the global financial landscape have seen conversations about XRP’s role as a cross-border settlement token change into what might happen if Ripple starts competing with banks. Ripple has completed several high-profile acquisitions in recent months that extend its reach into treasury services, trading infrastructure, stablecoin rails, and custody, and each of these deals speaks to a broader strategy. One of the most consequential moves was Ripple’s purchase of Hidden Road in April 2025. Hidden Road is a global prime broker that clears trillions annually and serves more than 300 institutional clients. With Hidden Road, which now operates as Ripple Prime, Ripple is now in charge of a multi-asset clearing, prime brokerage, and financing business. Another significant acquisition was that of GTreasury, a treasury management platform bought for about $1 billion in October 2025. Ripple also agreed to acquire Rail, a stablecoin payments platform, for around $200 million in August 2025. Integrating Rail’s stablecoin-focused technology strengthens Ripple’s broader payments ecosystem and helps better position its stablecoin , Ripple USD (RLUSD). That acquisition sits alongside other strategic deals completed in recent months, such as the purchases of Palisade and, most recently, Sydney-based fintech firm Solvexia on January 6, 2026 by GTreasury. Can Ripple Start Competing With Major Banks? Ripple has always been clear about its stance of competing with SWIFT as the leading global messaging network for financial institutions across the globe. Ripple’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, noted that the company plans to capture up to 14% of SWIFT’s current cross-border volume within the next five years. Ripple’s partnerships with over 300 banks and financial institutions around the world already show how its blockchain rails are being used to speed cross-border settlement and manage liquidity efficiently. Many partners use RippleNet’s messaging for faster transfers, and those that use XRP often do so to tap into liquidity corridors that eliminate the need for massive prefunded accounts on both ends of a transaction. Vincent Van Code, a popular crypto commentator on X, noted that Ripple is now encroaching on banks’ multi-trillion-dollar treasury, remittance, and custody revenue streams, areas that have historically been protected by legacy infrastructure. Ripple was held back for years by external constraints, but those barriers are now giving way and all the strategic pieces are beginning to fall into place. Most banks are working on outdated systems and will soon be forced to rebuild their infrastructure from the ground up, a process that could cost between $3 billion and $4 billion per institution just to remain competitive.
