This article is based on a sponsored press release. Cosmos and Interop Ventures used Sovereign EVM Day in Cannes to showcase how major crypto ecosystems are building around Cosmos infrastructure, with announcements spanning XRP, Telegram, TON, and cross-chain DeFi. Held on June 30, 2025 at the Belle Plage Hotel in Cannes, the event brought together more than 18 ecosystem teams for a full day of presentations, technical sessions, and cross-ecosystem panels.
Participants cited in the release included Ripple, TAC, Stride, Starknet, Polygon, Babylon, Pantera, and Anoma/Namada. The broader message from organizers was that Cosmos is positioning itself not just as another blockchain ecosystem, but as connective infrastructure for sovereign chains, EVM-compatible environments, and interchain applications that need deep interoperability.
Ripple pushes XRPL into native DeFi territory
The headline announcement came from Ripple and Peersyst, which said the XRPL EVM sidechain has launched on mainnet. Built on the Cosmos SDK, the sidechain is described as a major step for Ripple because it introduces native DeFi capabilities to the XRP ecosystem through an EVM-compatible environment. According to the release, this opens the door for consumer-facing financial applications and services to expand within XRPL in ways that were previously more limited.
The press material framed the move in the context of XRP’s scale, stating that the ecosystem exceeds $127 billion in value and serves more than 6 million users. With native IBC interoperability, those users are expected to gain access not only to applications built around XRP, but also to EVM and Cosmos-based applications. The implication is strategic: Ripple is using Cosmos technology to connect XRPL more directly to the wider multichain economy, rather than relying solely on isolated application environments.
For Cosmos, this serves as a high-profile validation case. Ripple is one of the most recognized names in crypto, and the launch of an EVM-compatible sidechain on Cosmos infrastructure reinforces the argument that sovereign chain design and interoperability can coexist with mainstream developer tooling.
TAC targets Telegram and TON distribution
Another closely watched presentation came from TAC, whose co-founder Marco Monaco discussed the project’s upcoming blockchain. TAC was presented as an EVM application layer extending the TON and Telegram ecosystem. In practical terms, the project’s ambition is to deliver EVM-based DeFi applications to more than 1 billion Telegram users, while allowing them to access those services without leaving Telegram or their wallets.
This matters because distribution remains one of the hardest problems in Web3. Telegram already has a massive global user base, and TON has long been viewed as one of the ecosystems with the most obvious consumer gateway potential. By positioning TAC as a bridge between Telegram-native user experiences and EVM-compatible applications, the project is trying to solve a long-standing tension between usability and composability.
The release also emphasized interoperability. Through IBC, TAC aims to connect TON and Telegram-linked applications with Ethereum and hundreds of other chains in the Cosmos-connected universe. If executed as described, that would allow developers to build applications that feel native to Telegram while drawing liquidity, assets, and logic from a much broader set of networks.
Stride expands the cross-chain DeFi thesis
Stride Labs used the event to outline the next phase of its IBC Flywheel strategy, centered on the upcoming Stride DEX. Backed by the Interchain Foundation according to the release, the DEX is intended to enable multichain swaps and provide a deeper liquidity layer for IBC Eureka. The project’s stated goal is to make cross-chain DeFi easier to use by abstracting away complexity for end users.
The release describes a future in which users can route through the Hub with a single click and interact with native assets not only across the many chains already connected through IBC and Ethereum, but eventually also across Solana, Bitcoin, and other networks. That is an ambitious vision, but it is also consistent with Cosmos’s long-running thesis: users should not need to care which chain an asset or application lives on if interoperability is robust enough underneath.
Stride’s role in this story is important because infrastructure narratives often remain abstract unless they produce visible user-facing utility. A DEX that can aggregate liquidity and simplify routing across multiple ecosystems is one of the clearest examples of how interchain architecture can become practical rather than purely conceptual.
Cosmos EVM and the sovereign chain narrative
At the start of the summit, Interchain Labs co-CEOs Barry Plunkett and Maghnus Mareneck reviewed Cosmos’s growth roadmap and highlighted Cosmos EVM as what they called the only fully integrated Layer 1 EVM stack currently on the market. The stack is already being used by Ripple, TAC, Babylon, and other protocols mentioned at the event, according to the release.
The pitch behind Cosmos EVM is that developers gain far more control than they would in a standard smart-contract deployment environment. Instead of merely launching an application on a general-purpose chain, teams can build sovereign and interoperable infrastructure tailored to their own requirements while retaining EVM compatibility. That framing is designed to appeal to both Layer 1 builders and developers who want application-specific architecture without giving up access to the EVM ecosystem.
Cosmos also tied this vision to recent progress around IBC. The release says that an updated version of the interoperability protocol already connects Ethereum to Cosmos, with Layer 2 networks and Solana listed as future targets. Combined with sovereign EVM chains, this is meant to position Cosmos as a central routing layer for financial assets, real-world assets, institutions, and multichain applications.
Why the event matters
Sovereign EVM Day was presented as the first gathering in the broader Sovereign Series, a curated set of global events focused on the future of Web3 at the intersection of multiple chains. The choice of announcements suggests a deliberate strategy. Rather than pitching Cosmos in isolation, organizers highlighted integrations that connect it to ecosystems with large user bases, strong brands, or specialized infrastructure advantages: XRP for payments and liquidity, Telegram for distribution, TON for consumer applications, and Stride for cross-chain DeFi.
That combination matters because crypto infrastructure has entered a phase where technical capability alone is no longer enough. Ecosystems are increasingly competing on connectivity, developer flexibility, and the ability to aggregate users and assets across fragmented networks. In that context, the message from Cannes was straightforward: Cosmos wants to be the interoperability layer that binds these worlds together.
Whether that vision translates into sustained adoption will depend on execution after the conference stage. But the announcements highlighted at Sovereign EVM Day show that major teams are at least willing to test Cosmos’s thesis in production environments. For the broader market, the event offers another sign that the next phase of blockchain competition may be defined less by isolated chains and more by who can best connect them.