With the launch of OpenUSD (OUSD), a stablecoin project involving about 140 financial firms including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe and BlackRock, the early design philosophy of the XRP Ledger (XRPL) is drawing attention again. Matt Hamilton (맷 해밀턴), a former principal engineer at Ripple, said the structure of the new project is effectively aligned with what was envisioned when XRPL was first designed in 2012.

U.Today, a blockchain news outlet, reported on Tuesday that Hamilton said on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that "the original concept of XRPL started from the assumption that every bank would issue its own stablecoin."

The discussion began after OpenUSD's launch prompted market reactions asking whether "another general-purpose stablecoin standard" was emerging. Hamilton said XRPL was designed from the outset so individual financial institutions could issue their own digital assets and exchange them freely on a single network.

He said the XRPL developers expected from the start that banks would each issue stablecoins. To support that, the network included built-in features for issuing custom tokens and an automated order book-based decentralised exchange (DEX). It was designed so assets issued by different institutions could be traded within the same network.

Hamilton said, "The reason we implemented on XRP Ledger the ability for anyone to issue stablecoins and a built-in DEX was because we thought every bank would want its own stablecoin," adding, "Banks did not do that then, but XRPL was about 15 years ahead."

OpenUSD, which has launched, also adopted a similar structure. Companies participating in the project can each issue their own stablecoins and separately retain returns generated from reserve assets. That means different stablecoins could be issued by participating companies such as Visa, Stripe and Coinbase. Hamilton said this model mirrors the financial infrastructure that XRPL developers had anticipated long ago.

Ripple is participating in the project as an integration partner. As a result, new assets issued by the consortium will be supported on the XRP Ledger. This is why some interpret that XRPL’s long-standing token issuance function and built-in exchange are now beginning to fulfil the role originally intended.

Hamilton's remarks show that the financial infrastructure envisioned by early blockchain networks is now aligning with stablecoin strategies in traditional finance. He said banks previously showed no interest in this model, but the market is ultimately moving in the same direction.

Amid this trend, XRPL’s 2012 design elements are again coming into focus. The key is not simply issuing stablecoins but creating a structure in which digital assets issued separately by multiple institutions can be exchanged within one network. Hamilton said the token issuance and built-in trading functions embedded in the network at the time are only now starting to carry out their original technical mission.