Ripple AI Payments on XRP: Game Changer or Not?

Ripple has launched the XRP Ledger AI Starter Kit. This kit aims to allow AI agents to make payments using XRP and Ripple's dollar-backed stablecoin. What's interesting is this uses x402, an open standard for machine-to-machine payments. Other blockchains like Solana and Ethereum already support this protocol. The x402 protocol has already processed about 35 million transactions on Solana since its launch. Ripple is targeting financial institutions with this new offering. They highlight fast transaction finality, low fees, and built-in compliance tools. However, even if this plan succeeds, the article states it may not significantly benefit XRP holders. This is because XRP's tokenomics mean a minuscule fee is burned with each transaction, not paid to anyone. At the current pace, it would take over 154 years to remove just 1% of the coin's outstanding supply. The bottom line is that value can move through the chain without directly increasing the value of XRP itself.