Here is How Ripple CEO Championed XRP Since Joining the Firm

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has continued to champion XRP since joining the firm a decade ago.

For context, Garlinghouse joined Ripple as COO in 2015 and secured a promotion to CEO a year later. Over the years, he has long been a vocal proponent of XRP, consistently championing the asset’s potential in global payments.

Notably, a popular XRP community-driven account known as “XRP Investing” recently compiled a list of Garlinghouse’s most notable statements regarding XRP. These remarks came from various platforms, conferences, and media appearances over the past several years.

Ripple CEO Touts XRP Capabilities

Specifically, one of Garlinghouse’s earlier affirmations came during a Ripple Swell conference. There, he called attention to XRP’s unique ability to handle the global payments challenge at scale. This differentiated it from other crypto assets in terms of real-world utility.

Another moment occurred at the 2018 Yahoo Finance Summit. During this event, Garlinghouse noted how Ripple’s ongoing momentum in solving cross-border financial problems naturally triggers rising demand for XRP. He connected the company’s growth with the relevance of XRP in multi-trillion-dollar markets.

Meanwhile, in January 2025, a more recent comment emerged during an interview where the Ripple CEO likened XRP’s suppressed market value to a basketball held underwater. Notably, this implied that the token’s true potential was unrealized but could soon see explosive growth. 

Looking back to September 2018, Garlinghouse appeared on the Stanford Legal Podcast, where he discussed XRP’s origin. He attributed its creation to a group of early Bitcoin engineers who sought to address Bitcoin’s limitations, particularly those concerning scalability. Remarkably, these upgrades set up XRP as a more efficient alternative.

XRP’s Transactional Speed, Non-security Status and Independence

Also in 2018, while speaking with Cheddar during that year’s Ripple Swell conference, the Ripple CEO pointed out XRP’s transaction advantages. He explained that the asset completes transactions 1,000x faster and 1,000x more cost-effectively than Bitcoin.

Furthermore, in August 2019, while discussing the class action lawsuit filed by Ryan Coffey against Ripple in May 2018, Garlinghouse asserted that XRP is not a security, a viewpoint he supported by referencing regulatory stances in countries such as the United Kingdom. 

1/ As a defendant in the class action lawsuit, I won’t get into the details (response from Ripple is coming soon). I will say: SEC guidance isn’t issued by the Commission and isn’t law, rule or regulation. It’s clear XRP is not a security and the UK and others have said as much.

— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) August 27, 2019

Meanwhile, one of Garlinghouse’s earliest statements on XRP came during an October 2017 interview with Fortune Magazine’s The Ledger. There, he argued that XRP can continue operating even without Ripple. According to him, this is what makes the asset decentralized.

Ripple’s Profitability, XRP ETF, and XRP Reserve

Further, in a candid moment during a 2020 Financial Times interview, Garlinghouse admitted that Ripple’s profitability and positive cash flow relied on the sale of XRP holdings. This statement provided transparency about the company’s financial model. Currently, Ripple holds over 41 billion XRP worth around $82 billion. 

More recently, in October 2024, Garlinghouse appeared on Bloomberg and touched on the future of XRP exchange-traded funds (ETFs). In his remarks, he confirmed that he is confident that XRP’s inclusion in ETF products is inevitable.

By January 2025, amid discussions around which digital assets deserve inclusion in a potential U.S. crypto reserve, Garlinghouse disclosed he has personal investments in XRP, Bitcoin, and Ethereum, as he called for a multi-asset reserve.