According to Mekras, he and his team had a similar idea in 2025 as a way to bootstrap the $XRP/$RLUSD liquidity pool. However, he noted that the Ripple team felt negatively toward the prospect and largely disregarded its proposal.
This is a great incentive program by @First_Ledger. Almost $500K of liquidity added in a few days. By the way, we had the same idea last year and proposed this to Ripple (along with some other great ideas) to bootstrap the $XRP/$RLUSD liquidity on the DEX and increase volumes and⦠https://t.co/oaU6h9780M?from=article-links
β Panos πΌπ¬π· (@panosmek) March 3, 2026
As he pointed out, the proposal now appears to be working for First Digital. Since this claim has started generating interest in the community, Mekras clarified in an early post that Ripple has a department for $XRP Ledger.
He believes that with one billion $XRP earmarked for the community and its builders, there will be a significant change in the ecosystem.
$XRP Ledger and DeFi counterparts
Despite the $500,000 raked in as liquidity into First Digital, the entire $XRP Ledger is still lagging behind significantly as concerns DeFi adoption.
By a large margin, Ethereum dominates the scene with a Total Value Locked pegged at more than $52.8 billion. This figure compares to $XRP Ledger, with less than $47 million.
XRPL is also underperforming in terms of other important metrics like fee generation and active addresses. The recommendation from Panos Mekras for Ripple to support the ecosystem with developer grants is perhaps one of the first steps in positioning for a better market share.