Ripple used the day before its Swell 2026 conference officially began to announce several significant developments across its institutional business. The event runs from October 27-29 in New York, but CEO Brad Garlinghouse summarized four major updates on “Day 0” and highlighted an appearance by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Robinhood and BNY Expand Ripple Ties
Robinhood has entered into a broad strategic partnership with Ripple covering stablecoins, treasury operations, institutional settlement, financing, and market access. RLUSD is already available on Robinhood Chain and Bitstamp by Robinhood, and it is expected to reach the main app later this year.
Robinhood will also use the stablecoin on the XRP Ledger for institutional settlement, integrate Ripple Treasury into its own financial operations, and expand its relationship with Ripple Prime. Ripple Prime already provides Bitstamp by Robinhood with lending and margin financing across roughly 20 digital assets, and it expects to add perpetual futures support later this year.
Ripple also expanded its collaboration with BNY Mellon, which now supports both XRP and RLUSD on its institutional digital asset custody platform. The two parties plan to explore tokenized trade finance on the XRP Ledger, including a potential supply-chain finance initiative involving C2FO.
In a separate announcement, Ripple and C2FO said they are bringing financing and settlement for the latter’s Instant Pay platform onto XRPL, with RLUSD used for settlement. The aim is to help suppliers receive funds in seconds rather than waiting for traditional bank transfers.
Treasury Expansion and Regulatory Win
Ripple Treasury introduced 24/7 Returns this week, designed to let eligible companies potentially put idle cash to work outside conventional banking hours using qualifying digital assets, including RLUSD. The platform combines cash management, forecasting, payments, liquidity tools, and AI-powered automation. Companies including American Airlines, Subway, and Adecco are using Ripple Treasury.
Meanwhile, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted Ripple National Trust Bank final regulatory approval, completing a process that began with conditional approval in December 2025. The federally supervised entity will be authorized to manage segregated reserves supporting Ripple’s stablecoin, act as collateral trustee for holders, and provide fiduciary digital asset custody services.
Garlinghouse emphasized that these announcements arrived only on Day 0, with Swell’s main program beginning afterward and more developments expected during the remainder of the conference.
