Canton Network and XRP: Paths to Institutional Adoption AllinCrypto February 4, 2026
As financial institutions move on-chain with tokenization, cross-border payments, and real-world assets, Canton Network and Ripple’s XRP Ledger are often spoken wihtin the same institutional context.
While both networks are working to modernize financial infrastructures, Canton and Ripple approach the problem from different angles with different goals.
Let’s explore the two distinct networks and how they do things differently when it comes to taking in valuable institions into web3.
Privacy by Design vs Public Transparency: Ripple and Canton
One of the most significant differences between Canton and the XRP Ledger is how they are able to handle privacy. Canton was built specifically for institutions and banking groups that require strict data confidentiality.
Many institutional players will not use public ledgers, with some vying to create their own private distributed ledgers, like JP Morgan’s Kinexys chain, instead of using existing public ones.
Canton operates as a permissioned network of networks, allowing each participant to control who can join, who can validate transactions, and who can see sensitive data.
This structure enables selective data sharing while maintaining regulatory compliance for firms, making the whole network appealing to banks and large financial providers.
By contrast, the XRP Ledger is a public, permissionless blockchain. All transactions are visible on-chain, which enhances transparency, auditability, and global liquidity but can be a limitation for institutions dealing with sensitive financial data or in-need of privacy for clients.
As of 2026, the XRP ledger is evolving, with planned zero-knowledge proof features designed to introduce privacy features without sacrificing its existing public nature.
Private Institutional Chain vs Open Institutional Ledger
Canton prioritizes privacy-first settlements and compliance for tokenized real-world assets, already supporting large-scale institutional flows for repo transactions.
The XRP Ledger focuses on open, global value transfers, particularly for payments and liquidity, with XRP acting as a bridge asset. Ripple’s recent launch of Ripple Treasury, after GTreasury, will utilize the RLUSD stablecoin for collateral, expanding the Ripple ecosystem’s reach into TradFi.
Both networks are less direct competitors and more complementary. Leading firms believe it will be a multi-asset industry and that there’s room for more than one token, including Bitcoin. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has stated that token maxiism is detrimental to the growth of the web3 industry.
Canton may dominate private institutional workflows, but the XRP Ledger will continue to serve as a public liquidity layer, especially as privacy-enhancing technologies mature.
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