A claim has emerged that Ripple’s patents and trade secrets are making it difficult for competitors to directly imitate its technology in the cross-border payments market.

On April 28, blockchain media outlet The Crypto Basic reported that XRP community researcher SMQKE said Ripple technology, particularly some technologies linked to the XRP Ledger, creates advantages that rivals cannot easily replicate.

The core evidence cited was a 2025 study on fintech intellectual property. SMQKE said Ripple’s patented technologies and its cross-border payments network could restrict competitors from building similar systems. The study examined how fintech companies use patents and trade secrets to maintain market dominance.

Ripple’s payments network is designed on a blockchain basis and aims for faster and cheaper processing than older systems such as SWIFT. One advantage cited was that it can reduce settlement time from days to seconds. Patents, however, protect only specific methods and designs and do not block broad concepts such as blockchain payments themselves. That means it is possible to develop a different system that delivers the same result.

The study also pointed to the role of trade secrets. Financial institutions often maintain competitiveness with in-house systems that are not disclosed externally. These include fraud detection algorithms, risk scoring models and encryption technologies. While patents receive protection on the premise of disclosure, trade secrets differ in that they can defend key technologies without revealing them. The outlet cited the FICO credit scoring system, widely used in banking but not publicly detailed, as a representative example.

It also said there is no confirmed move by SWIFT to follow Ripple technology as it is. Some in the XRP community say SWIFT cannot replicate Ripple technology, but based on publicly available information SWIFT is not trying to copy the XRP Ledger directly. Instead, SWIFT is building its own blockchain-based system using tools such as a partnership with ConsenSys and Hyperledger Besu.

Between 2025 and 2026, SWIFT also conducted a range of distributed ledger technology experiments, including tokenised assets and faster cross-border payments. The direction was not to replace the existing system with a single blockchain. It focused on interoperability that connects different blockchains and financial systems.

This shows the competitive landscape in cross-border payments. Ripple’s patented technology may offer an edge in some areas, but other players are building separate systems that can serve as alternatives rather than copying it directly. The discussion concluded that the market is moving not toward a single technology monopolising it, but toward multiple technologies competing and operating together within the same global financial network.