David Schwartz, a former chief technology officer at Ripple, raised asset control as the key issue in discussions about XRP staking.

On June 22, blockchain outlet U.Today reported that Schwartz answered a user asking about the possibility of staking on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) by saying, "Do you want to be your own bank, or do you want to be someone else's bank and get paid?"

The remarks drew attention after a question about a virtual incentive model from a video of the XRP Apex 2025 event was shared again. The question at the time was: "When, or on XRPL, will it be possible to stake XRP and earn income from network transaction fees?" Schwartz did not mention a specific timeline or feasibility. He instead asked what the premise of staking was.

XRPL currently does not support a native staking function. Schwartz's remarks are seen as suggesting that, unlike holding XRP in a personal wallet, the staking process could transfer control of assets to another party. He did not further explain the specific meaning of the expression.

The backdrop is XRPL's consensus structure. On most blockchain networks, staking is used to align the interests of validators and token holders, but XRPL is not a proof-of-stake (PoS) system like Ethereum. XRPL uses a proof-of-association (PoA) consensus model and prioritises trust and stability over monetary incentives. Validators also participate with a focus on network soundness rather than rewards.

That structure is also tied to the technical and economic conditions for introducing native staking. For XRP-based staking to work, there first needs to be a source of rewards and a way to distribute them. But transaction fees on XRPL are currently not paid to validators or token holders and are burned. This is a design choice intended to keep supply deflationary and improve network efficiency. In a structure where transaction fees are burned, it is not easy to create a direct funding source for staking returns.

Still, the market is already seeing experiments with yield services using XRP. Exchanges and decentralised finance (DeFi) protocols such as Uphold, Flare, Doppler Finance and Axelar are operating or testing XRP-based staking or yield programs. This is less a native feature within XRPL and more a trend in which external services expand how XRP is used within the existing design.

As a result, the remarks are read as again highlighting that repeated demands for staking among XRP holders require looking not only at whether to add a function, but also at the design philosophy of the XRP Ledger and how assets are held. In particular, by addressing the structural premise in response to the question of "when can staking be done", Schwartz again underscored that debate over native staking must resolve both the reward model and the issue of asset control.

Do you want to be your own bank or do you want someone else to pay you to be their bank?