Even though the hype around non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has died down considerably over the past few bear market months, Ripple NFTs developer community continues to invest in this promising market segment of the crypto space.

In late September, Ripple announced a $250 million fund to support tokenization innovation that will enable the creation of functional Ripple NFTs on the XRPL in areas such as real estate, media, carbon credits and more.

First released in April 2022, Ripple Labs introduced XRP Ledger Version 1.9. which brought NFT functionality to the devnet with XLS-20.

The amendment introduces support for non-fungible tokens, which has been available to the developer community for several months now. Developers can create applications that allow users to mint, transfer and eventually burn NFTs on the XRP Ledger.

Ripple NFTs Set To Launch In 2 Weeks

The amendment was up for vote over the past few days in accordance with the XRP Ledger amendment process, which allows protocol changes after two weeks with more than 80% support from trusted validators. Currently, a look at the XRPL amendment v1.9.2 (XLS-20) reveals that more than 80% approve the update.

XRPL Amendment v1.9.2 (Xls20) – 2 weeks countdown has begun! pic.twitter.com/3MZaT0Yr4M

— Emi Yoshikawa (@emy_wng) October 17, 2022

The special thing about the protocol update is that Ripple NFTs on the XRP Ledger do not require smart contracts, as the minting and all other functions are integrated directly on the ledger. In doing so, the developers promise minimal negative impact on the XRP Ledger’s performance and network congestion by creating NFTs.

However, a warning is also issued on the official XRPL blog. Because the road to XLS-20 activation has been long, some members of the community have expressed concerns about the pent-up demand for minting NFTs and converting Ripple NFTs from the outdated XLS-14d specification.

Several collections preparing for launch have also announced airdrops, including RPL Wild Stag and Astute Scholarz.

Therefore, when v1.9.2 is activated, the start of Ripple NFTs minting may cause a temporary increase in traffic on the XRP Ledger network, leading to higher transaction costs and temporary network congestion.

Image: NFT Dawn
Music, Sports And Gaming NFTs Coming To The XRP Ledger

As part of its $250 million NFT fund, Ripple yesterday unveiled its second cohort of NFT artists. The second wave of partners focuses on NFT projects in the entertainment space and aims to tap into a broader range of NFT use cases on the XRP Ledger (XRPL).

Creators are providing use cases for games, music, media, and the metaverse on the XRPL.

Among the use cases supported are an avatar tool for designing and minting unique, cross-metaverse NFT avatars, a Japanese metaverse music show offering customizable NFT avatars and digital apparel, an IP production company for artists with innovative music and video contracts, to a marketplace for sports clubs.

After a strong rally at the end of September, XRP is currently in a consolidation phase. Investors are apparently waiting for exogenous forces, such as an upward trend in Bitcoin or any further progress in the legal battle between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple.

On the daily chart, XRP is currently still above the 200-day moving average and has a neutral RSI of 47.

XRP trending sideways. Source: TradingView