Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse used a Nov. 4 interview to restate a familiar position: XRP sits at the center of Ripple’s business planning. The comments came as more attention has moved toward Ripple USD, the company’s dollar-pegged stablecoin.
Garlinghouse said RLUSD was not meant to pull focus from what Ripple calls its north star internally. His line was simple. Ripple, he said, only wants to do things that are good for XRP. That may sound broad, but the company has been applying it across payments, custody, treasury, and prime brokerage.
RLUSD supports payments, not a replacement
Ripple frames RLUSD as a tool for customers settling dollar obligations. The stablecoin is backed one-to-one by cash deposits, U.S. Treasuries, and cash equivalents, according to the company. Its value is designed to stay pegged to the dollar, while XRP’s price moves with the market. That difference matters for businesses that want to move a dollar balance without changing the currency in which a debt is owed and paid.
Garlinghouse said about half of all RLUSD was issued on the XRP Ledger. He also said the goal is to drive liquidity, trust, and utility through XRP. The asset used in a given transaction can depend on the payment corridor and currency pair. In other words, RLUSD may handle dollar settlement, but Ripple still wants more activity to touch XRP where it fits.
Integration follows a year of acquisitions
After about $2.5 billion in acquisitions in 2025, Garlinghouse described 2026 as a period of integration. He pointed to growth in treasury services and chances to move traditional payment activity onchain. In prime brokerage, he estimated roughly 20% of the business was already digital and said he wants that share to rise.
His longer view ties XRP to Ripple’s expansion beyond payments. In an Oct. 28 Swell video, he described XRP developing as institutional financial infrastructure. He said he prefers using the token where it suits customer transactions, even if that is a small share of activity rather than none.
Outside Ripple, some firms follow similar path
Anodos Finance offers one example. Co-founder and CEO Panos Mekras said in May that the company had bought XRP for its treasury, held it, and paid its team with it since 2023. Anodos develops trading and wallet tools for the XRP Ledger. Mekras said the asset is used on the XRP Ledger, Solana, and Flare.
For Ripple, the message is less about chasing every dollar through XRP and more about placing the token where it adds utility. The stablecoin may grow, but Garlinghouse is still measuring success by what it does for XRP.
