Is Canton Replacing XRP at the DTCC? Here’s What the Debate Is Really About

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A fresh discussion is taking place in the XRP community: Is the Canton Network quietly replacing XRP in institutional finance?

The question gained traction after Apex Crypto Insights’s Jesse addressed growing claims that Canton could take over roles tied to the DTCC, the financial giant that processes trillions of dollars in securities transactions every year.

But according to Jesse’s breakdown, that narrative misses a point.

Canton and XRP were built for very different jobs.

What Canton Actually Does

The Canton Network, launched in 2023 by Digital Asset, is designed for institutional finance. Its main focus is tokenizing real-world assets like U.S. Treasuries, bonds, and other securities — while keeping data private and compliant with regulatory rules.

In simple terms, Canton helps institutions move and manage tokenized assets securely.

It emphasizes:

• Configurable privacy
• Atomic settlement (all-or-nothing transactions)
• Institutional compliance
• Subnetworks that limit who sees what

Its native token is mainly used to pay network fees and support system activity. It was not designed to act as a neutral bridge currency for cross-border liquidity.

And that’s where XRP comes in.

What XRP Was Built For

XRP was explicitly designed as a bridge asset.

The XRP Ledger enables instant conversion from one currency to another — for example, converting U.S. dollars into XRP and then into pesos in seconds, without the need to pre-fund accounts around the world.

This is what Ripple calls On-Demand Liquidity.

Instead of parking money in foreign accounts and waiting days for settlement, XRP can provide liquidity in real time.

That’s a very different function from what Canton is trying to do.

Why the DTCC Question Matters

The DTCC plays a central role in post-trade settlement. It processes enormous volumes of transactions annually, including cross-border flows.

Some have speculated that Canton’s growing institutional footprint means XRP is being sidelined. But Jesse argues that the two networks serve complementary roles, not competing ones.

Canton focuses on tokenizing and settling assets within regulated financial ecosystems. XRP focuses on liquidity bridging — especially when value needs to move across currencies and borders.

Those are not interchangeable tasks.

The Liquidity Angle

One of the biggest differences is liquidity.

XRP relies on global exchanges, market makers, and deep liquidity pools to function as a bridge between currencies,  particularly in corridors where direct fiat pairs are thin or inefficient.

Canton, by contrast, depends on institutional participants building liquidity within specific asset environments. It is more U.S.-centric and geared toward tokenized securities and stablecoin-backed settlement.

That makes it powerful for asset tokenization — but not necessarily for global liquidity bridging.

Could They Work Together?

The more realistic scenario is not “Canton replacing XRP.”

Instead, institutions like the DTCC could theoretically use:

• Canton for tokenizing and managing regulated assets
• XRP for cross-border settlement and payment legs

In that model, XRP would still handle liquidity bridging, while Canton manages the asset layer.

They operate in different lanes.

Whether institutions ultimately deploy one, both, or neither at scale remains to be seen. But based on their architecture and use cases, they are solving different problems — not fighting for the same one.