Ripple CEO: ‘We Continue To Play Offense’ In Race For US Crypto Leadership
At DC Fintech 2025, Ripple chief government Brad Garlinghouse solid the corporate’s post-litigation posture as unapologetically expansionary, arguing that US coverage winds have shifted from “very robust headwinds to fairly robust tailwinds” and that the business is nearer to sturdy readability than at any level for the reason that SEC’s enforcement-led method took maintain.
Ripple Aims For US Crypto Leadership
“We’re going to proceed to play offense,” he said, framing Ripple’s near-term priorities throughout funds, custody and stablecoins and highlighting an acquisitive stance that now features a $1.25 billion purchase of prime broker Hidden Road and a $200 million acquisition of enterprise stablecoin supplier Rail. He added that extra bulletins are imminent: “We suppose now could be the time to take a position.”
Garlinghouse located that confidence within the political flip he sees in Washington following Ripple’s courtroom victory. He described the corporate as “the tip of the spear within the Biden administration’s assault on crypto via the SEC,” however argued the battle elevated Ripple’s standing and catalyzed business mobilization on the Hill.
Pointing to the House passage of the Clarity Act with cross-party help, he mentioned, “The Clarity Act handed the House with like 78 Dems coming over to help a Republican invoice, which I believe is indicative of the need for these applied sciences to be embraced.” While he declined to handicap the Senate, he emphasised the momentum is bipartisan and technology-driven slightly than ideological: “This matter ought to by no means have been partisan. It’s nearly like saying one aspect’s pro-email and the opposite’s anti-email.”
The CEO’s sharpest language focused the SEC’s earlier posture underneath Chair Gary Gensler, which he portrayed as counterproductive for innovation and client safety alike. Citing the decide in Ripple’s case, Garlinghouse mentioned, “A federal decide mentioned concerning the Gensler SEC, ‘they don’t seem to be following a trustworthy allegiance to the regulation.’ That’s fairly damning for a federal decide who occurred to be appointed by Obama.”
He added, “I undoubtedly don’t suppose we’ll return to that. Frankly, I believe that was a darkish day for expertise within the United States,” arguing regulation-by-enforcement pushed exercise offshore “the place sarcastically it’s much less regulated and there’s fewer client protections.”
Ripple Has A CEO, XRP Not
Garlinghouse repeatedly contrasted Ripple, a non-public firm that “raised enterprise capital and issued inventory,” with XRP, “an open supply expertise that’s type of native to our merchandise.”
Responding to persistent misconceptions, he mentioned: “People will say issues like, nicely, XRP has a CEO. And I’m like, who’s it? Ripple has a CEO — that’s me. There are scores, if not 100 different CEOs constructing across the XRP ecosystem.”
He harassed that Ripple doesn’t management the XRP Ledger’s rule-set: “There have been amendments handed to the XRP open supply expertise that we opposed — and so they nonetheless handed. That’s okay. That’s open supply expertise,” noting that ledger amendments require 80% group approval.
Ripple’s Push For A Fed Master Account
On banking entry, Garlinghouse urged regulators and incumbents to match compliance expectations with equal entry to core infrastructure. “Hold conventional finance accountable,” he mentioned. “Yes, the crypto business must be held to the identical commonplace as AML, KYC, OFAC. Yes, sure, sure. And we must always have the identical entry to infrastructure like a Fed grasp account. You can’t say one after which fight the opposite. That’s disingenuous.”
He confirmed Ripple has utilized for a nationwide financial institution constitution and argued that granting master accounts to companies like Circle and Ripple would “de-risk stablecoins,” supplied they’re “held to the identical regulatory requirements as a financial institution.” He additionally mentioned Ripple launched its stablecoin “underneath a New York belief license,” calling it “the gold commonplace” for the institutional clientele the corporate targets.
The sensible constraint for cautious banks, he urged, is the absence of totally codified regulation, whilst company postures evolve. He cited latest bank-side engagement “round stablecoins for positive” and mentioned “the Genius Act clearly helped,” whereas acknowledging some establishments stay cautious of coverage reversals in future election cycles.
Nonetheless, he argued time is working in crypto’s favor and that codification, when it comes, will speed up participation. “The extra time that goes by, the higher I believe it’s for the business, interval,” he mentioned, including that Ripple’s courtroom readability instantly spurred constructing “in and across the XRP ecosystem.”
Garlinghouse framed the broader coverage debate as a contest for fintech management. “The US leaned into the Internet within the late 90s. We’ve leaned out in blockchain. It doesn’t make sense to me,” he mentioned, noting entrepreneurs already select jurisdictions with clear guidelines similar to Europe’s MiCA or the UK’s regime.
He urged Congress to finish “regulation via enforcement” in favor of predictable frameworks in order that “shoppers are protected” and corporations “know easy methods to function,” stressing that “the huge, huge, overwhelming majority of entrepreneurs I do know in crypto need to play by the foundations.”
He additionally recounted the sensible penalties of the prior coverage local weather, saying it was as soon as “very, very laborious” for main banks to have interaction and that he himself had been “debanked by Citibank over the past 4 years.” The upshot, he argued, was a frozen US market whereas worldwide shoppers pressed forward, a dynamic he illustrated with an arresting statistic: “One fast knowledge level is 80 % of Ripple’s hiring between 2001 and 2004 [sic] was non-US, as a result of that’s the place our prospects have been.”
Today, he believes the “ship has sailed” on crypto’s permanence within the US monetary system. “You can’t put the genie again within the bottle,” he mentioned. “This tsunami remains to be coming. And I don’t suppose there’s something the US federal authorities goes to do to cease that.”
At press time, XRP traded at $2.42.