In an exclusive interview, Ashish Birla, CEO of the institutional firm Evernorth, stated that XRP is finally reclaiming its original purpose: serving as the fundamental base layer of the global financial system. The remarks came as Evernorth prepares for its highly anticipated Nasdaq listing under the ticker XRPN, a milestone that underscores XRP's growing institutional adoption.
Birla recounted Ripple's early days in 2013, when the team worked from a modest San Francisco office without air conditioning. Co-founder Chris Larsen urged frugality, but the team was driven by a clear vision: XRP as the core of an "Internet of Value"—an open financial network for instant movement of tokenized assets and liquidity. The first real-world test came when they convinced a nearby café, the Red Door Cafe, to accept XRP payments. At the time, XRP was worth only about $0.02; today, a latte from that experiment would cost roughly $120–150.
Evernorth, which holds 473 million XRP on its balance sheet, plans to use the XRP Ledger as the core infrastructure for launching regulated DeFi products. This will allow retail investors to earn yield on equal terms with large funds, embodying the original philosophy of an open financial system. According to Birla, after years of legal battles and regulatory uncertainty, XRP is now returning to its true technological potential for built-in value exchange.
