Key Takeaways
- Brad Garlinghouse linked RLUSD’s expansion to greater XRP liquidity and utility.
- Ripple focused on integrating businesses acquired for $2.5 billion in 2025.
- Treasury and prime brokerage offered paths to move more activity onchain.
Garlinghouse Reaffirms XRP as Ripple’s North Star
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse reiterated his longstanding commitment to XRP in an interview published on Nov. 4. Speaking about the attention surrounding stablecoin Ripple USD (RLUSD), he emphasized: “That wasn’t intended to take away from what we call internally our north star.”
Garlinghouse stated:
“We only want to do things that are good for XRP.”
The executive described RLUSD’s development as serving that objective, explaining that Ripple wanted more payments flowing through Ripple. The asset used for those transactions would depend on the payment corridor and currency pair, while Ripple aimed to keep customers satisfied with that experience.
That position extended his XRP-centered business strategy from February, when he called XRP the north star for Ripple and linked payments, prime brokerage, treasury, custody, and RLUSD to the crypto asset’s development. At XRP Community Day, he identified utility, trust, and liquidity as priorities across those businesses.
RLUSD Expansion Supports the Payments Strategy
In the Nov. 4 video, Garlinghouse said about half of all RLUSD was issued on the XRP Ledger. He stated:
“Our goal is drive as much liquidity, drive as much trust and utility through XRP as possible.”
Ripple described its institutional stablecoin applications as including payments, settlement, and treasury flows. RLUSD is backed one-to-one by cash deposits, U.S. Treasuries, and cash equivalents, according to the company.
For customers settling dollar-denominated obligations, RLUSD offers a dollar-pegged payment asset. Its value is designed to remain stable, while XRP’s price is determined by the market. That distinction allows businesses to transfer a dollar balance while keeping the amount owed and paid expressed in the same currency.
In separate X comments on Nov. 3, Garlinghouse addressed RLUSD’s relationship with XRP by identifying other stablecoins as its competitors. He also expressed a preference for stablecoin use cases running on the XRP Ledger.
Ripple Links Business Integration to XRP Utility
Following $2.5 billion in acquisitions in 2025, Garlinghouse described 2026 as a period of integration. He pointed to growth in the treasury business and opportunities to move traditional payment activity onchain. In prime brokerage, he estimated that roughly 20% of the business was already digital and wanted that share to increase.
His five-year institutional XRP outlook similarly connected the token with Ripple’s expansion beyond payments. In a separate Swell video shared Oct. 28, Garlinghouse envisioned XRP developing as institutional financial infrastructure. He favored using it where it suited customer transactions, preferring a small share of their activity over none.
Beyond Ripple, XRP treasury holdings and team payments reflected a similar commitment at Anodos Finance, a developer of XRP Ledger trading and wallet tools. Its co-founder and CEO, Panos Mekras, stated on May 31 that the company had bought XRP for its treasury, held the asset, and paid its team with it since 2023. He described XRP use on the XRP Ledger, Solana, which supports decentralized applications, and Flare, which connects applications with external data.
