from an article on xrp-
But not all the transactions that banks make on the Ripple platform have to use the XRP tokens, as was pointed out by The New York Times. Instead, banks could use dollars, euros, or another local currency on the Ripple platform, circumventing the alt-coin.
This cuts into what some buyers of XRP hope: that it can become a bridge currency used by financial institutions to make payments across borders.
In other words, as investors come to realize that Ripple the company does not need XRP the token to soar in price to be successful, investors may further cool to XRP.