While XRP trades around $0.287, still down about 93% from its ATH, due to regulatory uncertainty surrounding it after the SEC sued Ripple and its top two executives for selling unregistered security, the company predicted regulatory clarity this year. With the UK, Switzerland, Singapore, and Japan miles ahead, Ripple's General Counsel Stu Alderoty predicts that crypto regulation will be a top priority for the Biden team. "Intelligent, well-thought-out regulations communicated effectively and uniformly applied can help level the playing field and unleash innovation and further mainstream adoption here in the U.S.," said Alderoty.

Besides the regulatory part, Ripple sees the line between banking and crypto blurring. General Manager Asheesh Birla anticipates more fintech competing with banks on a level playing field this year. "The tide is turning" Birla added that a fintech or crypto company might acquire a traditional financial institution. And with this, the decentralized finance (DeFi) will see more traction. But Ripple's Head of DeFi Michael Zochowski anticipated that many of the early DeFi projects would "fizzle out" or get acquired but says DEXs and wrapped assets will gain momentum. He even sees Ethereum losing ground as "at least 25% of the value deployed in DeFi by the end of 2021 will be on networks other than Ethereum." Here, he sees the XRPL ecosystem, such as Flare and XRPL Transaction Hooks, to "extend its leadership role in DeFi."