Not just crypto chatter
Ashish Birla didn’t exactly whisper this one into the void. In a June 17 podcast, the Evernorth CEO said blockchain has moved from sci-fi wallpaper to actual financial plumbing, with networks like Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP increasingly used to move value.
The PayPal problem
Birla’s core pitch is simple: why pay a middleman if blockchain can do the job faster and cheaper? In his telling, stablecoins and tokenized assets could chip away at platforms like PayPal by turning payments into a more direct, programmable experience.
Why XRP keeps getting the love
The spicy part is the XRP callout. Evernorth is building a digital asset treasury around XRP, and Birla said the XRP Ledger was built early for tokenization and decentralized exchange features — basically, the kind of infrastructure institutions might actually use without needing a 40-slide PowerPoint and a prayer.
He also said Evernorth wants to be more than a passive holder. Think liquidity, lending markets, and financial products built directly on XRP. That’s a cleaner bullish story than “number go up” alone, and it gives XRP a more tangible role in the crypto payments race.
Big picture: the article is less about a single corporate event and more about a loud, public vote of confidence in blockchain-based payments — with XRP getting the shiny trophy and PayPal getting the side-eye.