After conquering crypto, Ripple Labs wants to take on traditional finance
Ripple Labs has become one of the largest cryptocurrency companies in the world, but executives aren’t stopping there, CEO Brad Garlinghouse told CNBC. Last year, the firm stepped up its bridging efforts. Web3 world and traditional finance, a sector long seen as its foil.
In an interview with CNBC’s “Crypto World” at the Ripple Swell 2025 conference in New York, Garlinghouse said his firm aims to offer a wide range of traditional financial services built on blockchain infrastructure, capitalizing on the growing institutional adoption of digital assets.
Blockchain is a decentralized digital ledger that logs transactions across a network of computers.
“I want to see Ripple invest” [the] “The assets we bought were on the traditional finance side, so we can bring crypto-backed solutions to that traditional finance world,” Garlinghouse said Tuesday.
We target finance-focused companies
Ripple is almost $4 billion buying spree Hoping to build a powerhouse in financial services in 2025 alone, it acquired top-notch brokerage Hidden Road in April for nearly $1.3 billion and software firm GTreasury for more than $1 billion this fall. Last week, it launched Ripple Prime, a brokerage that will give US-based institutions access to over-the-counter spot market trading in a variety of tokens, raising $500 million in new funding and increasing its market capitalization to $40 billion.
Ripple’s bid to deepen its push into traditional finance comes as institutional demand for digital assets grows. The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are rolling back regulation of digital assets this year under President Donald Trump, a self-styled crypto champion.
Bank of America And citigroup Citi has recently begun actively exploring stablecoins, announcing plans to launch a crypto custody service for clients in 2026. JPMorgan He said in June that Coinbase plans to offer a stablecoin-like “deposit token” on its public blockchain Base. Beyond dollar-pegged tokens, institutional investors have poured billions of dollars into spot Bitcoin ETFs since their U.S. debut in January 2024.
“The US used to lean into crypto, now we are leaning in as well, and I think people are underestimating how big of a shift this is and the likely impact it will have on the entire crypto market,” Garlinghouse said.
Enterprise integration
In addition to building its own services, Ripple also aims to sign agreements to lend its XRP Ledger technology to larger institutions’ crypto investments, according to Garlinghouse.
Such partnerships could be a boon for XRP’s native token. XRP LedgerA decentralized blockchain that aims to serve fast and low-cost transactions.
“The more benefits we can deliver and the more we can scale solutions that inherently leverage XRP, the more uniquely good that will be for the XRP ecosystem,” Garlinghouse said.
XRP It traded sideways for most of 2025 ether And bitcoin reached record highs of $3,900 and $126,000, respectively.
But Garlinghouse said that while high-profile partnerships could boost XRP’s price, striking deals with traditional institutions will likely remain difficult as efforts to create barriers for cryptocurrency companies and holders in the U.S. stall.
The crypto industry lobby was once hopeful that lawmakers would pass a comprehensive digital asset market structure bill called the Clarity Act before the end of the year.
But as the U.S. government shutdown enters its sixth week, efforts to establish legal guidelines for the industry have come to a halt.
“Until I get this [legal go-ahead]“This is going to be tough,” Garlinghouse said. “Banks are looking for and needing that clarity to be able to truly support.”
