XRP, Stellar (XLM), and Hedera (HBAR) are often placed in the same conversation when institutional adoption comes up. Each project has links to banks and major financial companies, but counting partnership announcements alone can produce a misleading picture.
A video from the BE CRYPTO SMART YouTube channel compared XRP, XLM, and HBAR based on which networks banks are actually testing or using. The interesting part comes from looking beyond the number of institutions attached to each project.
Some banks work with Ripple without directly using XRP. Other institutions are testing Stellar or Hedera for specific tokenization and payment functions. That distinction changes the comparison considerably.
So, which project has the strongest banking case in 2026? The answer depends on what exactly counts as adoption.
What you'll learn 👉
XRP Has More Major Banking Relationships, but Direct XRP Usage Is Harder to Prove
XRP comes first because Ripple has built relationships across banking and financial services for years.
The BE CRYPTO SMART video points to several major names connected with Ripple’s broader ecosystem. Those names include Bank of America, Santander, SBI, BNY, Standard Chartered and other large financial institutions.
The important distinction concerns what those relationships actually involve.
Ripple now operates several institutional products beyond XRP. The company offers Ripple Payments, Ripple Custody and RLUSD alongside infrastructure connected with the XRP Ledger. A bank working with Ripple therefore does not automatically become a bank using XRP.
BNY offers a good example. Ripple selected BNY in July 2025 as the primary custodian for reserves backing RLUSD. That represents a major institutional relationship, but the arrangement concerns Ripple’s stablecoin reserves rather than direct XRP purchases.
RLUSD has also become much larger during 2026. Ripple reported about $1.87 billion of RLUSD in circulation as of August 20. The stablecoin can operate across the XRP Ledger and Ethereum, which gives Ripple another route into institutional finance without requiring banks to hold XRP itself.
Bank of America also illustrates why these distinctions matter. An SEC filing dated February 3, 2026 confirms a Bank of America institutional holdings filing, but an investment exposure disclosed through securities filings should not automatically be interpreted as operational XRP usage inside the bank.
This creates an unusual situation for XRP. Ripple may have the broadest banking footprint among the 3 projects, yet direct XRP demand remains much harder to measure.
The XRP banking case therefore has several separate parts:
- Ripple has relationships with major global financial institutions.
- Ripple’s payment and custody products can operate without banks buying XRP directly.
- RLUSD gives institutions another Ripple product that does not depend entirely on XRP demand.
- XRP still benefits from the broader XRP Ledger ecosystem, but infrastructure adoption and token adoption should remain separate measurements.
That difference becomes important once Stellar enters the comparison.
Stellar XLM Has Fewer Named Banks but a Major U.S. Bank Is Testing Its Network
Stellar has a much smaller list of major banks in the BE CRYPTO SMART comparison. However, its strongest example provides a clearer connection between a bank and the Stellar network itself.
U.S. Bank started testing custom stablecoin issuance on Stellar alongside PwC and the Stellar Development Foundation. The project examines whether a regulated bank can issue programmable money through a public blockchain.
Mike Villano, head of digital asset products at U.S. Bank, explained why Stellar was useful for the experiment. Features available through Stellar allow issuers to freeze assets, reverse certain transactions and apply controls required within regulated financial services.
That matters because the bank is testing a specific capability on Stellar rather than maintaining a general relationship with the organization behind the network.
Stellar also secured a much larger financial infrastructure connection during 2026.
DTCC announced on May 27 that its DTC Tokenization Service plans to connect with the Stellar public blockchain. DTC tokenized assets are expected to become available through Stellar during the first half of 2027.
DTCC is not a commercial bank. Its role could still make this relationship more important than several individual bank pilots combined.
The company provides core post trade infrastructure for the U.S. financial system. Its decision to connect tokenized DTC custodied assets with Stellar therefore gives the Stellar network access to an institutional use case that extends far beyond one bank.
Stellar XLM consequently performs very differently depending on the measurement used. Its named bank count remains low, but the DTCC connection gives Stellar one of the strongest institutional infrastructure cases among the 3 networks.
Hedera HBAR Has Strong Bank Participation Through Real Network Pilots
Hedera presents another type of banking relationship.
The HBAR case depends less on a long list of general partnerships and more on banks that have participated directly in tests built on Hedera.
Shinhan Bank and SCB TechX completed a stablecoin remittance proof of concept on Hedera. The test provided real time settlement and foreign exchange integration across tokenized versions of the South Korean won, Thai baht and New Taiwan dollar.
Shinhan had already worked with Standard Bank on an earlier international remittance project using Hedera. Hedera now describes the banks’ work as a series of pilots that used Hedera Token Service and Hedera Consensus Service for cross border settlement.
Hedera’s Stablecoin Studio also lists Shinhan Bank, SCB TechX and Standard Bank among institutions that have used its stablecoin infrastructure.
The governance structure gives Hedera another institutional advantage. Shinhan Bank and Standard Bank have participated as Hedera Council members, so their relationship extends beyond testing a standalone application. Hedera’s network governance has also included major companies such as Google, IBM and Dell.
One limitation remains important. Many of Hedera’s strongest banking examples are still proof of concept projects or pilots.
A successful pilot proves that banks can use the technology. It does not prove that large commercial payment volumes have moved permanently onto Hedera or that banks need to accumulate large amounts of HBAR.
That same problem appears across all 3 projects.
XRP, XLM and HBAR Win Under Different Banking Adoption Measurements
A simple comparison makes the differences easier to understand.
| Project | Banking Strength | Main Limitation | Strongest 2026 Argument |
|---|---|---|---|
| XRP and Ripple | Broad relationships across global finance | Ripple adoption does not always create direct XRP demand | Largest overall institutional ecosystem |
| Stellar XLM | U.S. Bank stablecoin testing plus DTCC connection | Few clearly named commercial banks | Strongest financial market infrastructure relationship |
| Hedera HBAR | Multiple banks have directly tested Hedera services | Many projects remain pilots | Strongest case based on direct bank network testing |
This is why declaring one simple winner becomes difficult.
Ripple leads when the comparison focuses on the breadth of institutional relationships and financial products.
Stellar becomes especially competitive when infrastructure importance matters more than the number of banks. DTCC’s planned connection to Stellar could become far more important if tokenized DTC assets reach the network during 2027 as planned.
Hedera performs better when the measurement focuses specifically on banks that have tested services directly through the network. Shinhan Bank and Standard Bank provide documented examples, although production scale usage remains the next major test.
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Bank Adoption Does Not Automatically Mean XRP, XLM or HBAR Demand
One lesson from the BE CRYPTO SMART comparison matters more than the final ranking.
Blockchain adoption and token demand are different things.
A bank can use Ripple technology without buying large quantities of XRP. A bank can issue a stablecoin through Stellar without accumulating XLM as a treasury asset. A bank can test payments on Hedera without purchasing enough HBAR to materially affect HBAR price.
That makes the next stage much more important than partnership counts.
XRP needs more evidence that Ripple’s expanding institutional business creates measurable XRP usage. Stellar needs its DTCC connection to progress toward the planned 2027 rollout. Hedera needs its banking pilots to develop into recurring commercial transactions with measurable network activity.
Banks have therefore chosen pieces of all 3 ecosystems, but they have chosen them for different reasons. XRP currently offers the broadest institutional infrastructure story, Stellar has the standout DTCC relationship, and Hedera has strong evidence of banks directly testing its network.
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