Published:Nov 1, 2026, 7:30 PM EST

Ripple CEO Sees XRP as Institutional Gold Standard Within 5 Years

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse sees XRP continuing to emerge as the institutional gold standard for crypto rails over the next five years. David Schwartz envisions mass retail adoption, with blockchain supporting how people manage money, receive payments, invest, lend, and borrow.

WRITTEN BY

Kevin Helms

Published: Nov 1, 2026, 7:30 PM EST

Ripple CEO Sees XRP as Institutional Gold Standard Within 5 Years

Key Takeaways

Ripple would prioritize XRP where it suited customer transactions.
Schwartz envisioned blockchain becoming as accessible as the internet.
Garlinghouse hoped to move 1% to 3% of transaction activity onchain next year.

Garlinghouse and Schwartz Outline XRP’s 5-Year Future

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and board member and CTO emeritus David Schwartz outlined their five-year XRP outlooks in a video taken at Swell, shared on Oct. 28. Asked where he saw XRP and Ripple in five years, Garlinghouse answered:

“I think XRP … will continue to break out as the institutional gold standard for crypto rails.”

His answer followed an explanation of Ripple’s expansion from payments into corporate treasury and prime brokerage, with XRP serving as foundational technology. Garlinghouse said Ripple would prioritize XRP wherever it made sense, while recognizing that some transactions were better suited to fiat currencies or Ripple’s stablecoin, RLUSD. He preferred XRP handling a small percentage of a customer’s transactions over none.

Schwartz responded to the same five-year question by predicting mass retail adoption, comparing blockchain’s future accessibility with the internet. He described its potential role in everyday financial activity:

“It will be how they manage their money. It will be how they get paid. It will be how they invest. It will be how they lend and borrow.”

The discussion also connected tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) with the path toward broader retail adoption. That theme extended Schwartz’s June comments about XRP applications across financial services, including payments, tokenization, decentralized finance, and interoperability.

XRP Remains Central to Ripple’s Expansion

Garlinghouse expanded on the relationship between XRP and Ripple USD (RLUSD) in a separate Oct. 28 Bloomberg interview, describing XRP as “at the heart of everything Ripple does.” Discussing XRP’s role across Ripple, he explained that RLUSD complemented XRP, with roughly half of the stablecoin issued on the XRP Ledger. He said that activity brought liquidity and transaction volume to the network.

The assets addressed different needs within that strategy. Asked what XRP could do that RLUSD could not, he described its use as “a bridge asset between different currency pairs,” arguing that dollar-denominated stablecoins did not address every currency corridor in the same way. Ripple’s institutional XRP custody and payments extended access alongside its stablecoin services.

During his Oct. 28 Swell remarks, Garlinghouse reinforced that complementary relationship while reaffirming his commitment to the XRP ecosystem. He stressed:

“We will never give up on XRP.”

Transaction Growth Expands the Onchain Opportunity

In the video shared Oct. 28, Garlinghouse described transaction growth as an expanding opportunity for XRP, even as he expressed a preference for stronger crypto markets. Ripple’s products enabled more than $16 trillion in transactions during 2025, the company disclosed in its Oct. 28 update. It also projected a $900 million annualized product revenue run rate by year-end.

Corporate treasury illustrated how Ripple was incorporating digital assets into established financial workflows. Its RLUSD corporate cash management expansion included 24/7 Returns, through which eligible customers could earn returns on qualifying digital assets, including RLUSD held in a Ripple wallet. Participation remained subject to program requirements.

Garlinghouse said 99.9% of the $16 trillion in transactions still used traditional rails. He hoped to return the following year and report that 1%, 2%, or 3% had moved onchain, emphasizing: “Those are massive numbers to move onchain.”