Comments from Galaxy Digital’s leadership have looked into what ultimately 
sustains value in the crypto market. In a recent YouTube discussion centered 
on 2026 expectations for Bitcoin, crypto, and artificial intelligence, Galaxy 
Digital CEO Mike Novogratz and Head of Research Alex Thorn singled out XRP and 
Cardano, questioning whether even the strongest communities can survive if 
real usage fails to expand when users have a vast number of alternatives to 
choose from. Galaxy Digital Leadership Raises Questions About Community Versus 
Utility During the YouTube discussion, Mike Novogratz presented the utility 
debate through the lens of capital allocation. He explained that the real 
question is what an investor chooses when presented with many viable options. 
If capital can flow into something like SpaceX, then crypto assets must 
compete on similar grounds. Related Reading: Charles Hoskinson Reveals What 
XRP And Cardano Are Already Doing 100x Better He acknowledged that XRP and 
Cardano both have deeply committed communities, but questioned whether that 
loyalty can be sustained if users do not see any real utility with those 
ecosystems. “Can Ripple hold it together? Can Cardano hold it together?” 
Novogratz said. In drawing comparisons, Novogratz referenced Charles 
Hoskinson, noting his success in maintaining Cardano’s community over time 
despite it being a &#8220;blockchain that people don&#8217;t really use a lot.&#8221; He made 
similar observations about XRP’s following, which has a strong community. 
However, he posed a direct question about sustainability: &#8220;Can you keep it 
together when there are more and more options?” Recent crypto market dynamics 
have caused capital flows to become more selective. Developers and teams 
behind blockchain ecosystems all know this, and this is why there has been a 
race to demonstrate usage, revenue models, or clear value flows tied directly 
to their tokens. According to Novogratz, that doesn&#8217;t happen overnight. It&#8217;s 
probably a year-long process, not a one to three-month process. Cardano And 
XRP Proving Real-World Relevance The questions raised during the Galaxy 
Digital discussion arrive at a time when both Cardano and XRP are actively 
trying to strengthen their utility narratives. Recent events have seen Cardano 
attempting to reinforce its practical relevance through initiatives like the 
Midnight sidechain. Midnight is a privacy-focused Cardano sidechain network 
designed to support confidential smart contracts and selective data 
disclosure. Related Reading: Flare Launches New Way For XRP Investors To Earn 
Midnight is intended as a way to attract enterprise and institutional use 
cases that require compliance-friendly privacy, an area where public 
blockchains have traditionally struggled. XRP, on the other hand, is taking a 
different path through Ripple’s hard work to increase the utility of the XRP 
Ledger. Ripple has been expanding utility around Ripple USD (RLUSD), its US 
dollar-backed stablecoin, including broader deployment across multiple Layer-2 
networks. Ripple has also been on a partnership spree this year in moves to 
strengthen the utility of the XRP ecosystem, with about $4 billion spent on 
major acquisitions in 2025. The company also recently partnered with Doppler 
Finance to explore collaboration in XRP-based yield infrastructure and real- 
world asset (RWA) tokenization on the XRP Ledger, which is another added 
utility. Featured image from Pxfuel, chart from Tradingview.com

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