Ripple's Swell conference opens Oct. 27 at The Shed in Manhattan, bringing financial institutions together with XRP Ledger developers and researchers through Oct. 29. The blockchain payments company has released the full agenda for the event, which combines three separate programs into one for the first time.
More than 1,500 attendees are expected across three stages, with over 100 speakers scheduled for more than 80 sessions. Programming is organized into three tracks: Institutional, Ecosystem and Innovation.
Swell combines finance, development and research
For the first time, Swell will run alongside Apex, a summit for developers, institutions and investors building on the XRP Ledger, and UBRI Connect, an academic conference for participants in Ripple's University Blockchain Research Initiative.
Ripple framed the event as a venue for major company news, stating in its lineup announcement: "Swell has historically been where Ripple makes its most significant product and partnership announcements."
Discussions are set to span digital asset markets, stablecoins and blockchain infrastructure across the three tracks.
Bank executives and XRP Ledger developers take the stage
The published agenda lists Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, CME Group CEO Terrence Duffy and Bullish CEO Tom Farley among the speakers, with sessions covering digital asset markets and financial infrastructure. Matt Damon and Gary White, co-founders of Water.org, will also speak.
Tokenization sessions will examine how assets can be represented on a blockchain. On the technical side, David Schwartz, Ripple's chief technology officer emeritus, and Ayo Akinyele, senior director of engineering at RippleX, will discuss the XRP Ledger's future. RippleX is the company's team supporting development on the network.
Other technical sessions will address security, privacy and formal verification, a mathematical method for checking software behavior.
Stablecoins and RLUSD custody in focus
Stablecoins, digital assets designed to track a reference value, feature in discussions about payments and institutional finance. Sessions will compare individual issuers with consortium models and explore applications involving Ripple USD, or RLUSD.
Ahead of those discussions, eligible institutions can safeguard RLUSD issued on the XRP Ledger through Standard Chartered's RLUSD custody service, which launched Oct. 12. The service operates through the bank's branch in the Dubai International Financial Centre in the United Arab Emirates.
Licensing requirements influence how institutions assess stablecoins for payments, settlement and corporate fund management. Ripple outlined differences in stablecoin oversight in September, explaining how reserve, capital and supervisory obligations affect token backing and holder protections.
Under a planned collateral arrangement with LMAX Group, an institutional trading venue operator, eligible RLUSD holdings would support trading while remaining in Standard Chartered's custody, with their value reflected at LMAX without transferring the tokens there. Standard Chartered noted that the agreed capabilities depend on documentation, testing, applicable laws and regulations, internal approvals and jurisdictional readiness.
