Ripple President Long Unveils Her 2026 Crypto Predictions
Ripple President Monica Long says 2026 would be the yr institutional crypto utilization shifts decisively from pilots to manufacturing, as regulated infrastructure and clearer guidelines pull banks, corporates, and market intermediaries deeper onchain. In a January 20 weblog publish, Long frames the following leg of adoption round 4 forces: stablecoins, tokenized property, custody consolidation, and automation powered by AI.
#1 Stablecoins (Ripple USD) As The Settlement Layer
Long’s central prediction is that stablecoins will cease being handled as an “various rail” and develop into foundational to world settlement. “Within the following 5 years, stablecoins will develop into totally built-in into world cost techniques—not as a substitute rail, however because the foundational one,” she wrote. “We’re seeing this shift not in principle, however in apply, as heavyweights like Visa and Stripe hard-wire these rails into incumbent flows.”
She ties that trajectory to US coverage momentum, arguing the GENIUS Act “inaugurated the digital greenback period,” and positioning “extremely compliant, US issued stablecoins, together with Ripple USD (RLUSD)” as a regular for programmable, 24/7 funds and collateral use in markets. Long additionally factors to “conditional approval from the OCC to constitution the Ripple National Trust Bank” as a part of Ripple’s compliance technique.
The near-term demand driver, in her telling, is B2B, not retail. Long cites analysis claiming B2B funds turned the most important real-world stablecoin use case final yr, reaching an annualized $76 billion run-rate—up sharply from early 2023 ranges. She argues stablecoins can unlock liquidity and scale back working-capital drag, citing “over $700 billion” of idle money on S&P 1500 stability sheets and “greater than €1.3 trillion throughout Europe.”
#2 Institutional Exposure And Tokenization
Long argues crypto is more and more used as monetary infrastructure fairly than only a speculative asset. “Crypto has developed from a speculative asset into the working layer of contemporary finance,” she wrote. “By the top of 2026, stability sheets will maintain over $1 trillion in digital property, and roughly half of Fortune 500 firms could have formalized digital asset methods.”
She factors to a 2025 Coinbase survey she says discovered 60% of Fortune 500 firms are engaged on blockchain initiatives, and notes “greater than 200 public firms” holding bitcoin in treasury. She additionally highlights the rise of “digital asset treasury” corporations, claiming they grew from 4 in 2020 to greater than 200 at this time, with almost 100 fashioned in 2025 alone.
On market construction, Long forecasts “collateral mobility” as a key institutional use case, with custodians and clearing homes utilizing tokenization to modernize settlement. Her said expectation is that “5–10% of capital markets settlement” strikes onchain in 2026, supported by regulatory momentum and stablecoin adoption by systemically essential establishments.
#3 Custody Consolidation Accelerates
Long frames digital asset custody because the institutional on-ramp and predicts consolidation as custody choices commoditize. “M&A exercise on this house is a sign of maturity, not simply momentum,” she wrote, citing $8.6 billion in crypto M&A in 2025. She argues regulation will push banks towards multi-custodian setups and predicts “greater than half of the world’s high 50 banks” will add at the least one new custody relationship in 2026.
She additionally factors to convergence between crypto and conventional finance by means of offers reminiscent of Kraken’s buy of NinjaTrader and Ripple’s acquisitions of GTreasury and Hidden Road, positioning them as steps towards safer, extra built-in institutional workflows.
#4 Blockchain And AI Converge
Long’s remaining theme is automation: sensible contracts paired with AI fashions working treasury and asset-management processes repeatedly. “Stablecoins and sensible contracts will allow treasuries to handle liquidity, execute margin calls and optimize yield throughout onchain repo agreements, all in real-time with out handbook intervention,” she wrote.
She argues privateness tech is crucial for regulated deployment, pointing to zero-knowledge proofs as a approach for AI to evaluate threat or creditworthiness with out exposing delicate knowledge.
Long’s overarching declare is that 2026 marks a transition from experimentation to infrastructure: stablecoins as settlement and collateral, tokenization in core market plumbing, custody as a belief anchor, and AI-driven automation because the effectivity layer.
At press time, XRP traded at $1.905.