Key Takeaways
- Ripple expects more than 1,500 attendees and over 75 speakers.
- Robinhood, BNY, and ICE executives have joined the conference.
- Swell and XRPL Apex will operate as one event for the first time.
Ripple Adds Finance and Crypto Executives
Ripple confirmed an expanded conference program for its Swell 2026 in New York, with more than 1,500 attendees, over 75 speakers, and 50-plus sessions expected across three stages from Oct. 27-29. Swell shared the latest additions on X on Aug. 13 as financial institutions increase their involvement in blockchain payments, stablecoins, tokenization, and digital asset infrastructure.
The updated Swell 2026 speaker lineup includes Robinhood Senior Vice President and General Manager of Crypto Johann Kerbrat, BNY Global Head of Markets Laide Majiyagbe, and Intercontinental Exchange Vice President of Strategic Initiatives Michael Blaugrund. Featured participants also include Water.org co-founder Matt Damon, Bullish Chairman and CEO Tom Farley, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, and Ripple President Monica Long.
Other confirmed speakers represent Tradeweb, PwC, State Street, Amazon Web Services, Canary Capital, the XRP Ledger Foundation, and several universities. Former Reserve Bank of India Gov. Raghuram Rajan, Ripple Chief Technology Officer Emeritus David Schwartz and Tradeweb CEO Billy Hult are among the featured participants, while Ripple said further additions remain pending.
Swell and XRPL Apex Combine for First Time
The 2026 conference will unite Ripple’s institution-focused Swell event with XRPL Apex, a developer gathering centered on the XRP Ledger. Ripple previously described the combined program as its largest Swell event to date, bringing financial executives, developers, researchers, investors, and community members into one conference structure.
This broader format expands the audience beyond conventional banking and payments discussions, connecting institutional decision-makers with teams building blockchain applications. Earlier details showed that the expanded finance and XRP ecosystem event will feature institutional, ecosystem, and innovation programming alongside an expo hall, technical sessions, and related gatherings.
Swell’s 10th-year program also arrives as Ripple emphasizes regulated digital asset infrastructure and institutional participation. Ripple executives previously connected the conference’s 10-year milestone with growth in tokenization, decentralized finance, interoperability, artificial intelligence, and enterprise adoption.
Payments, Stablecoins and Tokenization Lead Agenda
Planned subjects include payments, capital markets, exchange-traded funds, stablecoins, tokenization, treasury management, cybersecurity, compliance and XRP utility. The conference will also cover privacy, quantum computing, decentralized finance and agentic finance, an emerging area involving artificial intelligence systems that can execute financial tasks under defined controls.
Developers attending the combined event will focus on the XRP Ledger’s consensus and transaction infrastructure. The public blockchain uses validators rather than proof-of-work mining, generally settles transactions within seconds, and supports issued assets, decentralized exchange functions, tokenization, and cross-border transfers.
Stablecoin sessions will address assets designed to maintain a reference value through reserves, collateral, redemption systems, or market incentives. These instruments increasingly support payments, remittances, trading, and treasury operations, although stablecoin structures carry distinct reserve and redemption risks.
New York Regulation Shapes Conference Discussions
Swell will take place as New York develops a more specific supervisory framework for dollar-linked digital assets. The New York State Department of Financial Services proposed new rules for payment stablecoin issuers on July 7, covering entities that issue tokens intended for payment and settlement.
The wider program begins with a hackathon on Oct. 24 and 25, followed by an institutional summit and welcome reception on Oct. 27. Main-stage sessions, breakout discussions, and the expo hall are scheduled for Oct. 28 and 29 at the Shed in Manhattan, with a closing celebration planned for the final evening.
