TL;DR: Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the company processes about $16 trillion in annual payments and clearing activity across businesses it acquired, yet digital assets account for close to zero percent of that volume. He framed the gap as XRP's opening to become a settlement layer for traditional finance.
Ripple processes approximately $16 trillion in annual payments and clearing activity across businesses it added through acquisitions, yet transactions involving digital assets make up "close to zero percent" of that total. CEO Brad Garlinghouse pointed to that gap during a June 26 CNBC interview as the reason XRP could move onto institutional payment rails.
Garlinghouse frames XRP as a settlement layer
Garlinghouse discussed XRP as a core part of Ripple's broader technology stack, emphasizing the asset's role in faster transactions for financial institutions already operating within existing payment systems. He argued the disparity between total payment volume and digital asset usage shows the opportunity to bring traditional infrastructure onto blockchain rails.
On institutional appetite, Garlinghouse said "We've seen tremendous demand." Expansion through acquisitions has broadened Ripple's reach across custody, brokerage, and enterprise finance, components the company is aligning toward modernizing payment infrastructure for banks and corporate clients.
Use cases widen beyond payments
Ripple's ecosystem now stretches into stablecoin settlement, treasury tools, and regulated market access. Ripple and Bitso are deploying MXNB and RLUSD on the XRP Ledger to support regulated dollar-peso liquidity in the U.S.-Mexico corridor, with Bitso serving more than 10 million users and over 2,000 institutional clients. These stablecoins anchor much of the company's cross-border strategy.
Regulated derivatives access has grown as well. Ripple Prime joined CME Group's 24/7 crypto futures and options launch as a clearing and financing partner, while XRP futures previously topped $1 billion in open interest within three months. That kind of open interest signals where institutional positioning is building.
Ripple Treasury lets organizations manage XRP and RLUSD alongside traditional assets, and David Schwartz, the firm's CTO emeritus, has outlined further use cases spanning tokenization, interoperability, decentralized finance, and artificial intelligence ahead of Ripple Swell 2026.
Source: Bitcoin News
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