Flare CEO Hugo Philion has reiterated his ambition to enhance the XRP ecosystem far beyond its current state. He is doubling down on his commitment to unlocking billions in XRP liquidity through DeFi integration.Taking XRP to New HeightsIn a tweet on Thursday, Philion said his team is “going to take XRP to new heights”. The statement builds on the company’s longstanding mission to transform XRP into a yield-bearing asset. He highlighted XRP as the core asset and FLR as the enabling token. Notably, this positions Flare as the missing link between XRP and decentralized finance. Flare CEO on X Flare CEO on X Notably, Philion’s latest statement comes on the back of a series of announcements made this year. In March, he revealed that Flare was preparing low-risk staking opportunities for XRP holders, allowing them to secure services across multiple ecosystems and earn rewards with minimal validator risks.By June, the concept had evolved into Firelight, a liquid staking protocol that enables XRP holders to wrap tokens into FXRP and mint stXRP for use in DeFi. Institutions quickly took notice. For instance, VivoPower committed $100 million in XRP. Meanwhile, Uphold joined as a key launch partner.Yield Opportunities EmergeIn August, details of Firelight’s potential yields came to light. Speaking with Scott Melker, Philion and Sentora CTO Jesus Rodriguez revealed that XRP could generate annual returns of 4–7% through Firelight. For an asset that has historically offered no yield, this represented a breakthrough.They designed the system to remain non-custodial and decentralized, avoiding the risks investors witness with centralized exchanges. With wrapped XRP (FXRP) secured on Flare and represented by stXRP, holders can participate in lending, borrowing, and even minting stablecoins, similar to Ethereum’s MakerDAO model.Expanding Beyond Cross-Border PaymentsXRP has long faced criticism for its lack of native smart contract support, limiting its role in DeFi. However, Flare’s EVM compatibility, oracle services, and cross-chain integrations aim to change that. Firelight is now unlocking idle liquidity estimated at over $100 billion in untapped XRP to position XRP as a serious player in on-chain finance.Community voices like attorney Bill Morgan have echoed this sentiment. He previously noted that XRP needs to “work harder” and expand its utility beyond cross-border payments. With Firelight, that vision is beginning to materialize.How Will XRP’s Price React?Meanwhile, Flare’s push to bring DeFi to XRP has continued to spark discussion about its potential impact on XRP’s price. EasyA co-founder Dom Kwok noted that XRP has not yet had its breakout DeFi moment but already reached a peak market cap of over $200 billion.He argued that XRP could scale to four figures once it experiences a true DeFi breakout, supported by institutional adoption, stablecoin payments, ETFs, and increased retail participation.
