Ripple CEO Garlinghouse Calls 2026 a Phenomenal Year for the Company

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse described 2026 as phenomenal for the company: transaction volume and business activity have significantly increased, demonstrating growing demand for Ripple's blockchain infrastructure. He also confirmed plans for XRP, which he believes could become the institutional gold standard for cryptocurrency payment infrastructure. However, Garlinghouse acknowledged that XRP is not suitable for all financial transactions.

Pragmatic Approach to XRP

Ripple will continue to bet on XRP where the cryptocurrency is clearly beneficial. "We believe XRP is very effective in some scenarios. Maybe not in others. But that's okay," Garlinghouse said. He is satisfied that XRP is used for only a small part of client transactions: "That's great. It still means I get a piece of the pie." He added: "Sometimes people get too fixated on how big the piece is and how big the pie is." This approach seems pragmatic: the company is growing its business and looking for cases where XRP is truly useful.

Schwartz's Forecast

David Schwartz, honorary CTO of Ripple and one of the creators of the XRP Ledger, made a bold prediction about the future of blockchain. When asked where he sees XRP and Ripple in five years, Schwartz replied that mass retail adoption is ahead, and blockchain will become as widespread and fundamental a part of life as the internet.

Swell Conference

Garlinghouse's optimism coincided with the 10th Swell conference in New York from October 27-29. Several announcements were made at the event, showcasing Ripple's ambitions in institutional finance. One of the main highlights was a speech by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who discussed the future of digital assets and the American financial system with Garlinghouse.

Ripple also announced a partnership with Robinhood to expand the use of RLUSD and infrastructure in institutional settlements, prime brokerage, and treasury scenarios. The company deepened its collaboration with BNY: the expanded collaboration includes digital asset custody and tokenized trade finance using XRP, RLUSD, and the XRP Ledger. The OCC has given final approval to Ripple National Trust Bank, and Coinbase has agreed to expand the availability of RLUSD on retail and institutional platforms.

Metrics

According to the company, Ripple will end 2026 with approximately $900 million in annual revenue from products. The number of clients and partners using multiple Ripple products has tripled, and the company's financial infrastructure is used by more than 1,700 institutions, corporations, and enterprises.