Flare cofounder Hugo Philion says XRP holders themselves could play a substantial role in determining the asset’s value by putting more of their holdings to productive use rather than leaving XRP idle.
Responding to commentary that he has been encouraging the XRP community to stop relying exclusively on Ripple to create value for the asset, Philion adapted a famous John F. Kennedy phrase to make his point.
“Ask not what XRP can do for you but what you can do for XRP,” Philion said, acknowledging that the statement was partly tongue-in-cheek.
To mangle and misappropriate a phrase from JFK:
“Ask not what XRP can do for you but what you can do for XRP.”
This is tongue in cheek but the reality is that the more XRP is locked up and put to work, the more others will perceive value in it – hence the collective actions of… https://t.co/Y53jqFTvJ3
— Hugo Philion (@HugoPhilion) November 11, 2026
However, the argument behind it was serious. Philion said that as more XRP is locked and put to work, other market participants could begin to perceive greater value in holding the asset. In his view, the collective actions of XRP holders can therefore become a “substantial driver” of XRP’s value.
Philion Wants XRP Turned Into Usable Capital
The latest comment expands on Philion’s recent call for the community to think beyond Ripple when evaluating XRP.
The Crypto Basic previously reported that Philion said XRP’s value should not depend on Ripple alone.
At the time, he challenged holders to consider what they were doing to put their XRP to work, attract new holders and turn XRP from a largely speculative holding into usable capital.
Flare is attempting to provide one route through FXRP.
FAssets went live on Flare mainnet in September 2025 with FXRP, a 1:1 representation of XRP designed to bring the asset into smart-contract applications. Flare says FXRP can participate in decentralized finance use cases such as trading, lending and stablecoin-related strategies.
The XRP backing FXRP does not disappear. Flare explains that the underlying XRP remains on the XRP Ledger while FXRP becomes its programmable representation on Flare.
Why Locking XRP Could Matter
Philion’s argument centers on changing how XRP is used.
An XRP holder who simply keeps tokens in a wallet contributes to ownership demand but does not necessarily create additional financial activity around those tokens.
By contrast, XRP represented as FXRP can potentially be deployed as collateral, supplied to lending markets, used in trading strategies or incorporated into other decentralized applications.
For example, FXRP has already been approved as an eligible collateral asset, while Flare has also developed infrastructure allowing holders to borrow RLUSD against XRP.
Philion has also proposed a system that could eventually allow users to borrow RLUSD against XRP directly from an XRPL-driven flow.
The broader idea is that increased productive use could strengthen XRP’s economic network effects and give market participants additional reasons to hold the asset.
Productive XRP Does Not Automatically Mean Higher Price
However, the relationship between locking XRP and increasing its market price is not automatic.
Putting XRP into FXRP-related applications can temporarily commit underlying XRP to the FAssets system, but this does not permanently remove those tokens from supply. FXRP remains redeemable against the underlying XRP.
There is also no established formula showing that a certain amount of XRP deployed in DeFi produces a corresponding increase in XRP’s market price.
Philion’s statement is therefore a thesis about utility, scarcity of actively available supply and market perception, rather than a guaranteed price mechanism.
Still, the argument is notable because it shifts some responsibility for expanding XRP’s economic role away from Ripple and toward the wider XRP ecosystem.
XRP currently trades around $1.06, after falling sharply during November.
Under Philion’s view, the longer-term question is not simply what Ripple builds around XRP, but how much of the asset’s enormous holder base ultimately chooses to put XRP into lending, collateral, trading and other productive financial applications.