Updated on:12/27/2025 06:00 PM 
The XRP Ledger (XRPL) ecosystem is experiencing a dual trend: increasing institutional adoption alongside a concerning rise in fraudulent projects targeting the network.
On June 4, Panos Mekras, co-founder of Anodos Finance, a prominent decentralized finance platform operating on XRPL, highlighted the growing problem of malicious actors exploiting the blockchain's expanding visibility for deceptive purposes.
Through a social media post, Mekras alerted the community about the emergence of numerous low-quality projects designed to mislead everyday cryptocurrency participants. He emphasized that these initiatives often launch tokens and conduct presales without delivering any functional product or having a credible development roadmap.
Mekras noted that XRPL-based ventures typically offer nothing more than polished websites, ambiguous promises, and aggressive promotional strategies.
He further revealed that some of these questionable ventures present development roadmaps that postpone basic product implementation for extended periods—sometimes over a year—while listing centralized exchange listings and influencer partnerships as primary objectives rather than actual product milestones.
According to Mekras:
Ripple's Chief Technology Officer, David Schwartz, also confronted this challenge, acknowledging that permissionless blockchain environments naturally attract bad actors due to the relatively simple process of launching deceptive schemes with minimal effort.
He stated:
However, Mekras contrasted this by pointing out that XRPL currently falls behind competing blockchain platforms in terms of producing high-quality decentralized applications.
For perspective, he mentioned that rival networks such as Avalanche support numerous sophisticated dApps and manage billions in total value locked (TVL), whereas XRPL continues to face difficulties in establishing a robust collection of practical, user-friendly projects.
He observed:
Notwithstanding these security concerns, Schwartz articulated an ambitious long-term strategy for positioning XRPL as an essential infrastructure layer for worldwide financial systems.
He explained:
He elaborated that XRP will serve as a fundamental component within this ecosystem, facilitating cross-border payments, providing liquidity, enabling trading activities, and streamlining settlement processes.
Schwartz elaborated further:
