The Ensemble
The same rails that carry a stream carry a spread.
XRPL settles a native central limit order book and native AMM pools in the same ledger, in the same atomic path. Where those two prices diverge, the correction is a same-ledger trade — no bridge, no wrapped asset, no inventory in flight.
The XRP Ledger runs two venues in one place. A central limit order book, where offers rest at the prices their makers named, and automated market maker pools, where price is a function of the pool’s balances. Both are native transaction types. Both settle inside the same ledger close.
Because they are priced by different mechanisms, their quotes drift apart between closes. A resting offer does not move on its own; a pool’s price moves with every swap against it. The gap between the two is the spread.
Elsewhere, closing a gap like that means moving inventory between venues, and the transfer takes longer than the gap lasts. On XRPL the correction is a single transaction touching both venues in one atomic path. The whole trade executes in one ledger or none of it does. There is no bridge to wait on, no wrapped asset to hold, and no inventory in flight between the two prices.