Ripple’s own top engineer has thrown cold water on one of the XRP community’s most persistent theories: that the company’s 1,700 non-disclosure agreements are hiding secret, large-scale adoption plans.
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Chief Technology Officer David Schwartz said these NDAs are standard business practice and that claims about massive, undisclosed events are “almost always completely false.” No coordinated government plans. No hidden catalysts. Just routine confidentiality agreements.
What the numbers actually show
That clarification comes at an odd time – right as Ripple is touting figures that do XRP community is still vibrant.
The company recently described its platform as the most customizable treasury platform in the world 13,000 member banks and more than $12 trillion in annual payment volumes moving through the system.
These figures can largely be traced back to the acquisition of Ripple in 2025 GTtreasurypurchased a treasury management company for $1 billion. That deal brought an already established network of financial institutions under Ripple’s roof.
The world’s most customizable treasury platform, trusted by industry leaders around the world.
100% cash visibility. 13,000 member banks. $12.5 trillion in payment volume.
See why → https://t.co/HBFXch1n4m pic.twitter.com/uIqpmz2bHw
— Ripple (@Ripple) April 30, 2026
Veteran investor Patrick L. Riley put the 13,000 bank figure into context. With more than 4,000 banks and a similar number of credit unions in the US alone, the total, he says, implies a large international reach, especially in Western financial systems.
Reports indicate that XRP proponents previously ignored Ripple’s NDA disclosures – which came to light during the SEC vs. Ripple Labs case – linked to those same banking partnerships. The latest numbers appear to go further than what these court documents suggested.
Price projections provoke critical scrutiny
Riley also put forward a speculative framework that suggests XRP could be worth $625 per token if 20 billion XRP were responsible for moving all $12.5 trillion in annual flows.
The token is currently trading around $1.37. That gap is huge, and analysts warn the projection relies on shaky assumptions about liquidity usage and token velocity.
Under this model, the value of XRP would depend less on market sentiment and more on the extent to which banks actually use the token in real-world transactions.
That last part is the sticking point. Ripple’s payment system does not always require XRP to function. Reports note that it remains unclear what portion of that $12.5 trillion will actually pass through XRP versus Ripple’s broader infrastructure.
Having 13,000 banks in a network is one thing. Getting them to make payments through a digital asset is another thing.
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Schwartz returns to the hype
Schwartz has been direct. He acknowledged that NDAs involve confidentiality, but said the theories built around them go far beyond what the agreements actually cover.
According to Schwartz, the idea that there is something earth-shattering waiting to be revealed misinterprets the way these arrangements work in practice.
Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView