Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has reaffirmed XRP as the company's top priority, addressing recent attention on the company's RLUSD stablecoin during the Ripple Swell event in New York.
Speaking to CoinDesk at the event, Garlinghouse acknowledged that recent RLUSD announcements had drawn focus away from what the company internally calls its "North Star." He stated that Ripple only pursues activities that benefit XRP's interests.
Use Cases and Strategy
In a separate interview, Garlinghouse described Ripple as a blockchain infrastructure company that began with payments and has expanded into corporate treasury and prime brokerage services. He noted that XRP's suitability varies by use case.
"We think XRP is extremely efficient in some use cases and, frankly, probably not in other use cases," Garlinghouse said. "And that's okay."
The CEO explained that Ripple may use fiat currencies or RLUSD for certain transactions instead of XRP. "I'd rather see XRP do a small percentage of a customer's transaction than zero percent," he remarked, noting that using alternative methods still results in XRP capturing a portion of transaction volume.
Regarding XRP's future, Garlinghouse expressed his vision of it becoming "the institutional gold standard for crypto rails," with broad institutional access used for managing money, payments, investments, lending, and borrowing.
Institutional Developments
Ripple announced several institutional partnerships during the opening day of Swell, including a strategic partnership with Robinhood covering stablecoins, treasury operations, institutional settlement, and financing.
BNY Mellon expanded its relationship with Ripple by supporting both XRP and RLUSD on its institutional digital asset custody platform. Additionally, Ripple's National Trust Bank received final regulatory approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to complete a process that began with conditional approval in 2025.
