Ripple Prime CEO Speaks Out on EDX Partnership, but XRP Left Behind

As Ripple Prime officially announced an integration with crypto platform EDX Markets, CEO Michael Higgins confirmed that the partnership gives clients unified access to spot markets and perpetual futures through a single framework with centralized clearing and netting.

However, the launch of this institutional mechanism exposed a strategic compromise, and instead of XRP, the primary settlement and margin asset of the deal will be the stablecoin Ripple USD (RLUSD).

Institutions don't want to manage more venues, they want smarter infrastructure.

Excited to bring @markets_edx liquidity into @Ripple Prime, giving clients seamless access to spot and perpetual futures markets through one unified, capital-efficient framework.

Fewer silos.…

— Mike Higgins (@mikehiggins) May 21, 2026

For traditional heavyweights behind EDX, including Citadel Securities and Fidelity Investments, the use of dollar-backed stablecoins is effectively the only acceptable standard for minimizing volatility. As a result, RLUSD, a product designed to serve Wall Street, effectively leaves the volatile XRP outside the marketing narrative.

This naturally raised questions about whether the company's core token is being reduced to a secondary asset.

Why is XRP sitting out the headline?

Apparently, the tension around this issue can no longer be ignored, and the day after the announcement, Evernorth Treasury, the largest institutional holder of XRP, published a technical manifesto titled "Why RLUSD Can't Replace XRP".

In short, the authors emphasize that the absence of XRP from front-facing agreements at the EDX level is not a rejection of the token, but the result of a fundamental separation in architecture. The difference between the assets is divided across two key fronts: