Evernorth ties XRP to Fed master‑account talks

Evernorth CEO Asheesh Birla published a policy thread on April 30 linking XRP to a possible change in U.S. payment flows if regulators allow certain regulated stablecoin issuers limited access to Federal Reserve master accounts. He used Ripple USD (RLUSD) as an example of an issuer that could qualify under the structure.

The thread described a Fed master account as the primary settlement point for dollars. “A ‘master account’ at the Fed is the top of the payments plumbing. It provides direct access to settle dollars at the source. Today, only banks have it. Every payment app routes through a bank to touch it,” Birla wrote.

Under the scenario Birla outlined, qualifying stablecoin issuers would settle liabilities directly at the Federal Reserve. XRP would not replace Fed settlement. Instead, XRP would act as a movement layer that transfers dollar value inside the domestic payments stack once a regulated stablecoin connection to bank accounts exists. The thread noted, “If the proposal advances and RLUSD qualifies, settlement still happens at the Fed. But XRP becomes a movement rail for dollars inside the US payments stack.”

Birla cited recent regulatory work that could enable the setup. He referenced a Federal Reserve staff note from March 30 that examined how payment stablecoins might reduce friction in cross-border transfers by converting funds into stablecoins for more direct movement before converting back to local currency. He also pointed to proposals from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation board action on April 7 to publish a proposed rule adopting GENIUS Act–style standards for permitted payment stablecoin issuers, covering reserves, redemption, capital, risk management, custody and safekeeping.

Evernorth has paired the policy argument with public-market filings. The company filed a Form S-4 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 18 for a proposed business combination with Armada Acquisition Corp. II (Nasdaq: XRPN). The firm said it is designing a regulated, transparent XRP treasury approach, has raised more than $1 billion in gross proceeds, and expects to list as a publicly traded XRP treasury company on Nasdaq if the merger closes.

The model Birla described depends on issuer qualification rules and future regulatory decisions. If a subset of trust-chartered or otherwise qualifying stablecoin providers meet narrower master-account requirements, those tokens could settle at the Federal Reserve while separate rails such as XRP move dollar value within the U.S. payments network. The thread identified RLUSD, issued by Ripple’s New York–regulated trust company, as having a regulatory profile similar to the type of issuer the proposal would contemplate.

Evernorth combined the public policy thread with its SEC filing and fundraising to create a market-facing vehicle tied to the regulatory path for payment stablecoins and potential institutional XRP exposure.