“Can Ripple and Cardano hold it together as the market matures to fundamental-focused projects, Galaxy’s Novogratz asked Friday.”, — write: www.coindesk.com
“Can Ripple hold it together? Can Cardano hold it together?” Novogratz said during a conversation with Galaxy’s Head of Research Alex Thorn on Friday.
He highlighted that while XRP and Cardano’s native token, ADA, boast resilient fan bases, their on-chain activity remains relatively weak.
“Charles Hoskinson, bless his soul, he’s kept the Cardano community with a blockchain that people don’t really use a lot,” Novogratz said. “He’s had a strong community just like XRP. Can you keep it together when there are more and more options?”
Novogratz argued that the broader market is evolving: Tokens that aren’t “money” like Bitcoin will be valued like traditional businesses based on revenue, usage, and measurable value.
Fintech company Ripple uses the XRP token as a bridge asset for fast, low-cost cross-border payments through its RippleNet network, with partnerships across banks and fintechs. Yet, critics have long pointed out that its organic activity remains low and does not justify XRP’s multi-billion dollar market valuation.
XRP currently holds a market capitalization of approximately $115 billion, ranking it fifth among cryptocurrencies, according to CoinMarketCap data. Cardano’s ADA sits at around $13-14 billion, placing it around the 12th spot.
On-chain metrics underscore Novogratz’s concerns about adoption. At press time, the number of active XRP addresses was 16,703, according to data source CryptoQuant.
Cardano’s active addresses tallied over 19,000. Both numbers are significantly lower than other projects such as Solana, which typically sees millions in active addresses driven by DeFi, memes, and apps. Solana’s SOL token has a market cap of $72 billion, the seventh-largest in the world.
Novogratz contrasted community-driven tokens with emerging examples like Hyperliquid, a decentralized perpetual exchange that generates real revenue and burns most profits to buy back its token, creating equity-like economics.
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The new framework due Jan. 1 will let banks pay interest on clients’ e-CNY holdings.
- The People’s Bank of China will implement a new digital yuan framework on Jan. 1, allowing commercial banks to pay interest on digital currency holdings.
- The digital yuan will transition from digital cash to digital deposit money.
- An international digital yuan operations center is proposed for Shanghai, aiming to enhance the currency’s global reach.
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