XRPL EVM sidechain mainnet
Ripple’s XRPL EVM sidechain has launched mainnet for DeFi use cases — a big step for smart contract compatibility on XRPL and a direct signal to builders. (x.com).
Mainnet went live on June 30, 2025, according to Ripple’s announcement of the XRPL EVM sidechain. (ripple.com) Development and launch were led by Peersyst in collaboration with RippleX, with Axelar announced as the bridge partner connecting the sidechain to XRPL and other networks. (ripple.com) The sidechain is implemented using the Cosmos SDK and IBC to enable cross‑chain flows, and the project documentation describes it as a Cosmos‑style chain that brings native XRP into EVM tooling. (xrplevm.org) Axelar serves as the primary bridge for moving assets (including wrapped XRP) into the EVM sidechain, and Ripple named Axelar the connector that will route native XRP liquidity to the new chain. (theblock.co) Ripple and industry outlets have promoted performance figures of up to 1,000 transactions per second for the sidechain, with block finality reported under four seconds (some reports cite ~3.4s block times). (okx.com) Testnet activity averaged about 280,000 transactions per day with participation from roughly 87 teams, and early mainnet traction included roughly 1,400 smart contracts deployed within the first week after launch. (ccn.com) The sidechain supports standard EVM tooling—Solidity, Hardhat, MetaMask—with documentation noting MetaMask access to native XRP and onboarding workflows via the Squid router, while integration with Wormhole and oracle/adoption partners (Band, Blockscout, others) are listed in rollout plans. (xrplevm.org) Ecosystem maps published by the project list early dApps and DeFi projects such as Xrise, Hammy Swap, Strobe, Securd, and Vertex among initial builders on the XRPL EVM. (xrplevm.org)
