Updated September 10, 2026.
No public record reviewed through September 10, 2026, shows the Federal Reserve using XRP, integrating the XRP Ledger into FedNow, or running a Ripple-based payment pilot. Federal Reserve materials describe FedNow as a domestic, bank-to-bank instant-payment service that settles through Federal Reserve master accounts—not as a cryptocurrency or cross-border XRP rail.
That conclusion is deliberately narrow. It describes what the reviewed public record establishes; it cannot rule out undisclosed activity or a future policy change.
What The Evidence Shows
| Claim | What the public record shows |
|---|---|
| The Federal Reserve uses XRP | No reviewed public Fed record identifies XRP in an operational role. |
| FedNow uses XRP or Ripple technology | FedNow documentation describes domestic interbank settlement through Federal Reserve master accounts and does not identify XRP or Ripple. |
| A Fed-hosted report endorsed Ripple | A 2017 task-force report listed a Ripple submission in a Capability Showcase, but said showcase descriptions were company-supplied and not endorsed. |
| Ripple-related central-bank projects prove Fed adoption | Bhutan and Palau examples concern other jurisdictions and do not establish Federal Reserve use of XRP. |
| XRP is simply faster and cheaper than SWIFT | XRPL ledger confirmation and SWIFT payment delivery measure different endpoints. A universal comparison would be misleading. |
| U.S. CBDC law points to XRP | The current statute neither names XRP nor authorizes the Federal Reserve to use it. |
What Federal Reserve Records Say About FedNow
The Federal Reserve says the FedNow Service began operating on July 20, 2023. It processes and settles individual payments within seconds, around the clock. Its April 2026 Operating Procedures describe it as an interbank real-time gross settlement service with integrated clearing. Settlement occurs through debit and credit entries to participating institutions’ Federal Reserve master accounts.
Two boundaries matter:
- The Federal Reserve says FedNow supports only domestic payments between U.S. depository institutions.
- Its consumer FAQ says FedNow is not a digital currency.
The reviewed FedNow rules, FAQs, and operating materials do not identify XRP, the XRP Ledger, or Ripple as a FedNow settlement asset, network component, or operator. A bank’s independent use of another vendor or digital asset would not, by itself, mean the Federal Reserve or FedNow uses that vendor or asset.
Why a Fed-Hosted Reference to Ripple Is Not Adoption
There is a real historical reference that needs context. A 2017 Faster Payments Task Force report hosted by the Federal Reserve included Ripple in its Capability Showcase. The same report states that showcase descriptions were provided by the submitting companies and were not endorsed by anyone other than the listed company. It also says the report reflected the task force’s collective views and did not necessarily reflect Federal Reserve views.
The record therefore proves that a Ripple submission appeared in a Fed-hosted task-force publication. It does not prove a Federal Reserve contract, pilot, integration, endorsement, or use of XRP.
Ripple, XRP, and The XRP Ledger Are Different Things
Conflating these terms creates many of the claims circulating online:
- Ripple provides payment and digital-asset products to institutions.
- XRP is the digital asset native to the XRP Ledger.
- The XRP Ledger, or XRPL, is the underlying open-source, permissionless ledger.
Ripple’s current cross-border payments page says its infrastructure supports fiat and digital assets and offers payouts in fiat or stablecoins. That means a reference to Ripple Payments does not establish that XRP is used in every transaction. Likewise, use of XRPL technology does not automatically prove use of XRP as a bridge asset.
What Global Ripple-Related Projects Establish
Global projects provide evidence of Ripple or XRPL activity outside the United States, but they do not bridge the evidentiary gap to the Federal Reserve.
In September 2021, Ripple announced that Bhutan’s Royal Monetary Authority would pilot CBDC use cases on Ripple’s private ledger, which Ripple described as based on XRPL technology. That company announcement is evidence of the announced pilot relationship—not proof that the public XRP asset was used, that the project remains active, or that the Federal Reserve participated.
Palau provides a better-documented historical example. Its official Phase 1 report says the pilot was designed for up to 200 government-employee volunteers, that the Palau Stablecoin was issued on XRPL, and that it was fully collateralized with U.S.-dollar deposits. However, a January 2026 International Monetary Fund paper says the 2023 pilot had been put on hold because of difficulty finding a custodian bank. It says a later tokenized-dollar initiative would require legislation, regulations, and a custodian-bank partnership.
Neither example documents the Federal Reserve’s use of XRP.
Project Hamilton and the Digital Dollar Project Do Not Show an XRP Link
The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston said Project Hamilton was completed in December 2022. It was a technology research project with MIT and was agnostic about future policy decisions. The record does not establish a Ripple or XRP role.
The Digital Dollar Project is not a Federal Reserve project. It describes itself as a privately funded, nonprofit, nongovernmental organization. Its work therefore cannot be treated as evidence that the Federal Reserve adopted any digital-asset platform.
What Current U.S. Law Says About a Federal Reserve CBDC
Public Law 119-101, which became law on July 11, 2026, added Section 16A to the Federal Reserve Act. The section generally prohibits the Board of Governors and Federal Reserve Banks from directly or indirectly issuing or creating a central bank digital currency, or a substantially similar digital asset, through a financial institution or other intermediary.
The statute also contains an exception for a dollar-denominated currency that is open, permissionless, and private and that fully preserves the privacy protections of U.S. coins and physical currency. That provision ceases to be effective on December 31, 2030. A separate rule of construction says the section does not authorize Federal Reserve issuance without an Act of Congress.
These provisions matter to any discussion of a future digital dollar, but they do not mention Ripple or XRP and do not establish the Federal Reserve’s use of either.
What XRP’s Speed and Fee Figures Actually Mean
XRPL documentation says XRP transactions can settle on the ledger in three to five seconds. It also says the current minimum cost for a standard transaction is 10 drops, although the requirement can rise with network load, and some transaction types cost more.
Because one drop equals 0.000001 XRP, the arithmetic is:
10 drops / 1,000,000 = 0.000010 XRP
That is an on-ledger network cost expressed in XRP, not a guaranteed all-in dollar price for a cross-border payment. A user’s total cost can also involve exchange spreads, conversion, compliance, custody, liquidity providers, service charges, and the movement of money into or out of the ledger.
Why A Universal XRP-versus-Swift Table is Misleading
Swift says its established network is a carrier of messages between financial institutions and does not itself hold customer assets, manage accounts, clear, or settle transactions. Its current speed page says 75% of payments reach the beneficiary bank within 10 minutes and more than 90% within one hour, while also explaining that the final credit to the customer—the “last mile”—can extend the end-to-end journey. That webpage does not disclose a measurement period for the over-90% figure.
Swift’s September 2025 speed report identifies the 75% figure as first-quarter 2025 tracking across the top 40 receiving countries. It also cautions that the traffic was mostly corporate and financial-market payments and may not represent retail experience.
Swift’s infrastructure is also evolving. On July 9, 2026, Swift said its blockchain-based shared ledger was ready for initial use, with 17 banks from six continents preparing live tokenized-deposit pilots. Swift describes the ledger as an orchestration layer for bank-issued tokenized deposits on the banks’ own ledgers, with final settlement completed through existing systems.
These facts do not show Swift using XRP. They do show why comparing “three-to-five-second XRP settlement” with a single universal Swift time or fee is not like-for-like. One figure concerns ledger confirmation; the other payment journey can include messaging, bank processing, intermediary activity, compliance, currency conversion, and the beneficiary-bank last mile. This article therefore does not present the old universal speed-and-cost table.
What Evidence Would Demonstrate Real Federal Reserve Use of XRP?
A credible adoption claim should satisfy all of these conditions, not merely one:
- Identify a named Federal Reserve entity, such as the Board of Governors, a Reserve Bank, or a Federal Reserve payment service.
- Explicitly identify XRP or XRPL, rather than referring only to blockchain, tokenization, or Ripple in general.
- Describe an operational role, such as a signed contract, procurement award, governed pilot, production integration, or actual settlement use.
- State the date, scope, and status clearly enough to distinguish a proposal, comment, or demonstration from live use.
A third-party comment hosted on a Federal Reserve website, a vendor’s marketing statement, a bank’s separate relationship with Ripple, or a historical task-force showcase does not meet that standard on its own.
Bottom Line
The available public record reviewed through September 10, 2026, does not show the Federal Reserve using XRP in the United States or globally. FedNow is a domestic instant-payment service that settles through Federal Reserve master accounts. Historical Fed-hosted material mentioning Ripple was not an endorsement. Ripple-related work in Bhutan and Palau concerns other jurisdictions and does not establish use by the Federal Reserve. Current U.S. CBDC law does not name XRP.
Future policy or infrastructure could change, but any claim of Federal Reserve adoption should be tied to a dated, official record that names the Federal Reserve entity, the asset or ledger, and the operational role.
Related reading: For a separate explanation of crypto-linked market exposure, ABBO’s guide to BITO’s futures-based structure and distributions explains how that fund differs from direct Bitcoin ownership. This is related investment reading, not evidence about the Federal Reserve or XRP.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does FedNow use XRP?
No reviewed Federal Reserve description, rule, or operating procedure identifies XRP as part of FedNow. The Fed describes FedNow as a domestic instant-payment service for eligible U.S. depository institutions and says it is not a digital currency.
Has the Federal Reserve partnered with Ripple?
No public record reviewed through September 10, 2026 establishes a Federal Reserve–Ripple contract, operational partnership, or pilot. Ripple’s appearance in a 2017 Fed-hosted task-force showcase was a company submission, not a Federal Reserve endorsement.
Will the Federal Reserve use XRP in the future?
There is no verified basis for predicting that outcome. Any future claim should be reassessed against a dated official announcement, contract, technical specification, or named operational pilot.
Methodology
This review prioritizes Federal Reserve and Reserve Bank materials, U.S. statutory text, official SWIFT publications, XRPL technical documentation, government and multilateral reports, and company statements for claims about the company’s own products or announcements. The review cutoff is September 10, 2026. Negative conclusions are limited to the public records reviewed, and technical comparisons are included only where the measured endpoints are comparable.
