Uphold's upcoming "Earn on $XRP" feature will apply to a massive pool of 1.62 billion tokens held on the trading platform. Chief Product Officer Paul Underwood has officially confirmed that the long-awaited passive income tool is now in its final stages of development.

The announcement was made at the $XRP Vegas conference and later repeated on X. Underwood acknowledged that development has taken longer than planned, but assured users: "The wait is almost over, with details coming in the next few weeks."

At my talk at $XRP Vegas, I shared that Uphold is working on a way to earn on $XRP. We're getting closer to launch! It has taken longer than planned - but the wait is almost over. Will be sharing more in the coming weeks. — Paul U. (@PaulWavelength) September 2, 2026

Staking and yield products have become a major competitive battleground among crypto exchanges. Platforms such as Coinbase, Kraken, and Binance have long offered yield on assets like Ethereum and Solana, and Coinbase has cited staking among its key revenue drivers. A comparable offering for $XRP—where holders have historically had few regulated ways to earn on their tokens—would give Uphold a differentiated product in that market.

A technical challenge

The complexity of this release is largely technical. By design, the $XRP Ledger (XRPL) does not support native staking in the same way as networks such as Ethereum or Solana. To give users the ability to earn interest, Uphold must implement workarounds—for example, using DeFi lending protocols such as Exactly Protocol, or wrapped tokens through its partner, Flare Network.

Beyond the technical side, the exchange is also addressing legal matters. In responses to users, Underwood confirmed the company is currently working to obtain New York's strict BitLicense—a signal that the new Earn tool is being prepared under the close oversight of U.S. regulators. Regulatory caution around crypto yield products is well founded: in 2023 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged both Kraken and Coinbase over their staking programs, with Kraken settling and ending its U.S. staking-as-a-service offering. That enforcement environment helps explain why exchanges now move carefully when structuring earn products.

Why the product matters to Uphold

For the platform, launching this product is a strategic move backed by substantial figures. According to its official Proof of Reserves report, Uphold currently holds around 1.62 billion $XRP. This means:

• It represents 1.63% of all $XRP in circulation worldwide.
• It places Uphold among the world's top three exchanges by $XRP holdings, behind only South Korea's Upbit and global exchange Binance.
• $XRP is the largest asset on the platform by market capitalization, with user holdings backed at a 1:1 ratio.

Uphold has long positioned itself as a primary hub for the $XRP community. The exchange already offers debit cards in the U.S. with up to 6% cashback in $XRP, as well as bonuses of up to 3% on recurring purchases.

A full-fledged Earn program would address a key need of long-term investors: the ability to monetize their holdings safely within a regulated platform, without moving them to complex and risky third-party DeFi services. The company has promised to disclose official terms and interest rates in the coming weeks. Those disclosures—which mechanisms will generate the yield, what terms apply, and whether the product will be available to U.S. and New York users—will be the key details to watch as the launch approaches.