PANews reported on June 30 that according to The Block, Ripple's XRP Ledger has launched an EVM sidechain on the mainnet, supporting developers to build, migrate and deploy cross-chain and Ethereum-compatible applications in their ecosystem. The XRPL EVM sidechain runs in parallel, integrating the low-cost transactions of the XRP Ledger with the smart contract functions of Ethereum, providing optimized infrastructure for the development of new decentralized applications (such as lending, tokenization, and payments). The sidechain was developed in collaboration between Ripple, Peersyst, and Axelar, using the Evmos software stack. Although the XRP ledger previously had limited smart contract capabilities and did not support EVM, Flare Network has provided this functionality through the EVM compatibility layer. The sidechain connects to the XRPL mainnet through Axelar, transfers and encapsulates XRP as a native GAS token, and has attracted DeFi projects such as Band Protocol, and will integrate the cross-chain protocol Wormhole in the future.