The XRP Ledger has welcomed a new era of cross-chain DeFi with the launch of the XRPL EVM Sidechain on the mainnet, following years of development and testing in conjunction with Peersyst and the broader XRPL ecosystem.

The XRPL EVM Sidechain adds Ethereum compatibility and smart contract programmability to the XRP Ledger ecosystem, and its launch marks an important step toward introducing general-purpose smart contract capabilities to the XRPL.

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Developers have long sought EVM compatibility to scale and extend XRPL’s unique capabilities, and with the EVM sidechain launch, they can now build, port and deploy cross-chain and EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine)-only dApps while tapping into XRPL’s deep liquidity. This paves the way for entirely new classes of decentralized apps, spanning lending, tokenization, payments and beyond, on infrastructure optimized for speed, security and scale.

XRPL EVM Sidechain is a sidechain linked to the XRP Ledger via the Axelar bridge that connects to over 80 blockchains. Axelar is the first interoperability service to connect the XRPL EVM, bridging the native gas asset XRP into the sidechain.

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Furthermore, the sidechain is integrated with Squid as the official cross-chain transfer UI app for XRPL and the EVM sidechain, which improves XRPL’s multichain capabilities.

Cross-chain interoperability protocol Wormhole is set to be integrated with XRPL EVM Sidechain. Wormhole supports over 200 applications across 35 blockchain ecosystems.

Aside from Ethereum compatibility, the EVM sidechain is intended to have faster block times than Ethereum’s 14 seconds and lower transaction costs, making it suitable for high-volume dApps. XRP is the native gas token for the XRPL EVM sidechain, increasing its utility.