After the XRP rally above $2.60, the primary token was not enough. The Ripple army is now trying to build a native meme token ecosystem.
XRP has spawned another gold rush – this time, to create meme tokens on the Ripple protocol. The new wave of XRP-based tokens started in early November, and assets are now trying to gain traction. The rush to meme tokens coincided with the expansion of XRP, which still trades at $2.64. The recent launch of meme tokens took only a few weeks, showing projects are moving fast when there is a sign of potential liquidity.
The meme platform is modeled after Pump.fun, but it taps the resilient Ripple army. All tokens exist on the XRP Ledger, or XRPL.
XRP has been known for its community of dedicated holders, which are now testing the revival of year-old meme tokens, in addition to new launches. The major platform for Ripple-based tokens is First Ledger, where currently a few new assets are created each day.
XRPL memes are extremely risky
Even established meme tokens are comparatively volatile. On XRPL, even the most liquid assets are trading at a fraction of the price and liquidity for Ethereum or Solana memes.
At the same time, long-term XRP holders are taking some measured risk, in a bid to tap the upside of a successful meme. XRPL memes trade against XRP, with long-term holders using their tokens as play money.
Drawdowns of nearly 80% are not unusual, as most tokens are experimental. Despite this, a month into the XRPL meme frenzy, the assets received their own DexScreener page. The current selection of memes on XRPL is a mix of older assets, created in 2023 or even 2022, and new memes launched in the last few hours.
ARMY leads the XRPL meme trend
ARMY is an asset launched a year ago, which is having another moment in the spotlight. Riffing on the Ripple army meme, ARMY is the most liquid of tokens. Even at the top, ARMY has $2.6M in liquidity and a market capitalization of $40.5M, similar to a minor Ethereum or Solana meme.
Despite the low volumes, ARMY managed to rally from $0.006 to a peak of $0.16, helping to bring more attention to the new meme opportunity.
PHNIX is a more recent token, created in the last 24 hours, which survived its first day on First Ledger. The asset accrued $200K in liquidity and managed to eat a whooping 15 zeroes from its price, to trade at $0.0000041. It is precisely this potential for expansion that is making traders choose early bets among XRPL memes.
There is one big problem with XRPL meme tokens – all of their assets have their liquidity unlocked. Trading on the XRPL protocol has no mechanism to lock liquidity as it is usually done on Uniswap or Raydium. This means there is still no way to check if a token has at least some reassurance in the case of a rug pull.
First Ledger receives immediate VC backing
The immediate effect of the meme frenzy is that First Ledger started to attract potential VC backing.
Victus Capital, a small Tier 4 fund, picked the XRPL market for its future potential. For now, there is no commitment to invest funds, but Victus has shown readiness to support ecosystem projects.
XRPL has promised to replace traditional transactions, including banking. For now, the distributed ledger has lagged behind the wider DeFi and token ecosystem. XRPL tokens are still niche, and are now trying to grasp the chance of standing out.
XRPL DEX is the only other trading hub for the protocol. The DEX had minimal volumes, just before the breakout of new token launches. As a result, XRPL DEX increased its value locked to $67.62M, up from months of holding just around $12M.
Even if memes are short-lived, they are showing the potential of XRP to build a wider ecosystem. The token is still a paradox, with extreme exposure among top assets, but limited external utility. XRP itself has no official utility, but can be used for liquidity in a decentralized ecosystem, boosting its value similar to Solana.
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