Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse told the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium that the crypto industry is now shaping U.S. regulation rather than just fighting it, and said Ripple has grown "more neutral" on going public. He also detailed the scale of Ripple's recent acquisitions and their planned use of the XRP Ledger.
Ripple CEO Defends Industry's Regulatory Record
Speaking at the third annual Wyoming Blockchain Symposium, Garlinghouse rejected claims that the crypto industry opposes regulation, arguing it has moved from facing setbacks to taking part in U.S. regulatory developments. He criticized Senator Elizabeth Warren's stance on crypto and noted that Ripple holds 75 licenses worldwide, pointing to a federal court finding that XRP itself is not a security.
On the CLARITY Act, Garlinghouse said the industry needs broad regulatory clarity to succeed in the United States, adding that Ripple has leaned in aggressively to support the bill. He said Senators Tim Scott and Cynthia Lummis, along with White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt, remain optimistic about its passage. Despite a roadblock over ethics provisions, Garlinghouse said he remains hopeful about getting the bill passed.
Ripple Turns More Neutral on IPO
Garlinghouse described Ripple's long-standing push to bridge traditional finance and blockchain as a strategy once criticized by crypto purists but now seen as a strength amid tightening regulation. He said Ripple is on track for a record year and expects revenue to more than double year-over-year, calling institutional infrastructure the industry's primary driver.
He praised Kraken's revenue performance as a private company, crediting its diversification beyond retail and crypto-only offerings. Asked about a Ripple IPO following Kraken's own SEC filing, Garlinghouse said Ripple has been happily private for a long time, but that the company is now "more neutral on the topic than maybe we used to be."
Acquisitions and the XRP Ledger's Reach
Ripple has completed almost $2.5 billion in acquisitions over the past year and conducted about $3 billion in shareholder tender offers across the past two years, and Garlinghouse expects further consolidation during the crypto winter. Together, acquired platforms Hidden Road and GTreasury touch roughly $16 trillion in annual transaction volume, comparable to Visa's scale. Garlinghouse said shifting portions of that activity onto the XRP Ledger could improve speed, cost, and settlement.
Garlinghouse also pushed back on the idea that AI is driving major corporate layoffs, saying organizational bloat is often the issue instead, while noting that any move into agentic payments would need guardrails around corporate access and human accountability.
Source: CoinGape
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