XRP at the Heart of Everything Ripple Does – CEO
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has reiterated that XRP remains central to the company’s strategy, countering claims that institutional interest has pivoted to Ripple’s stablecoin, RLUSD, instead of XRP, the firm’s native token.
Speaking on Bloomberg Crypto, Garlinghouse emphasized XRP’s importance even as Ripple expands into treasury, custody, and prime brokerage services: “Anyone who doesn’t think that XRP is at the heart of everything Ripple does is kind of missing the big picture.”
Garlinghouse noted that roughly half of all RLUSD is issued on the XRP Ledger. “That brings liquidity, that brings volume, that brings activity on the XRP Ledger,” he explained.
The comments follow Ripple’s recent milestone of securing final approval from the OCC to operate a national trust bank, and BNY Mellon’s announcement that it has started custodying both XRP and RLUSD.
At the time of writing, XRP is trading at $1.24, down approximately 7% in the past 24 hours and 52% over the last year, according to trading data from CoinMarketCap.
Garlinghouse described RLUSD as an entry point rather than a replacement for XRP, noting that finance leaders often turn to stablecoins first for operational needs.
“The more we facilitate stablecoin use, the greater our opportunity to integrate XRP across all our services,” he said. “People should not lose sight of the fact that Ripple cares more about the XRP ecosystem than anyone.”
When asked about XRP’s unique value compared to RLUSD, Garlinghouse highlighted its role in cross-border currency transactions. He explained that since more than 90% of stablecoins are denominated in US dollars, they do not address the need for efficient transfers between other currencies.
He cited the example of payments from Australian dollars to Philippine pesos, which typically require conversion through the US dollar. XRP, as a neutral bridge asset, can facilitate such transfers directly, offering a very low-cost and highly scalable solution.
“Having a neutral bridge asset that’s very, very, very low cost and very scalable is something we think will continue to be appealing,” Garlinghouse said. Ripple Receives Final OCC Approval to Establish National Trust Bank
