Ripple Allocates Capital to AI Infrastructure with Strategic Startup Investment

Ripple co-leads a $5M funding round for t54 Labs, aiming to build identity and risk systems for AI agents executing financial transactions on the XRP Ledger, despite mixed on-chain user metrics.

Blockchain firm Ripple is making a strategic push into artificial intelligence. The company has participated in a $5 million funding round for t54 Labs, a startup building identity and risk management systems for autonomous AI agents that execute financial transactions. This move is aimed at enabling such agents to operate on the XRP Ledger.

Funding Round and Strategic Vision

The investment round was co-led by Anagram, PL Capital, and Franklin Templeton. According to its founder, t54 Labs is developing verification and monitoring tools for automated financial processes, addressing a current lack of established standards within traditional finance for this new form of machine-driven activity. The startup's platform is already operational on the XRP Ledger, as well as on Solana and Base networks.

Ripple's commitment underscores a focus on building institutional-grade infrastructure for emerging technologies, positioning the XRP Ledger for a future generation of autonomous financial applications.

Contrasting Network Metrics Emerge

This investment coincides with a period of mixed signals from the XRP Ledger's on-chain data. On one hand, network activity, measured by successful payments, hit an annual high in February, exceeding 2.7 million. This represents a significant jump from just 1 million recorded at the end of December. Daily transaction volumes have recently approached the 2.5 million mark.

Conversely, user engagement has weakened substantially. The count of active addresses plummeted to just 14,551 on February 24. This figure marks a 55% decline from the monthly peak of 32,684 active addresses, indicating a divergence between high transaction counts and a shrinking user base.

DEX Liquidity Gets a Boost

In a positive development for the ecosystem, liquidity on the XRP Ledger's native decentralized exchange (DEX) has improved. Following the activation of the "Permissioned Domains" upgrade, deposits in Automated Market Maker (AMM) pools have risen to more than 14,000.

While current user metrics show contraction, Ripple's foray into AI through t54 Labs is a forward-looking bet on the underlying infrastructure that could drive the next wave of adoption.