Ripple CEO denies being an XRP maxi

BRAD

WORLD

XRP

CEO

BLACKROCK

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has built one of the most recognizable brands in crypto, backed by one of its most vocal communities.

But speaking at Consensus Miami on May 5, he was quick to draw a line between loyalty and tribalism.

Ripple is a San Francisco-based fintech company focused on building payment infrastructure for financial institutions using blockchain technology.

Founded in 2012 by Chris Larsen and Jed McCaleb, it developed the XRP Ledger and uses XRP (XRP) as a bridge currency to facilitate fast, low-cost cross-border transactions.

Garlinghouse joined Ripple in April 2015 as its first Chief Operating Officer, reporting to co-founder and then-CEO Chris Larsen. He was promoted to CEO in December 2016, officially taking the role at the start of 2017.

Garlinghouse recalled the first time he attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, where a central banker pulled him aside and said: "Crypto is still a bad word."

That was roughly seven years ago. Garlinghouse said the industry has come a long way since, with crypto no longer carrying the stigma it once did in traditional finance circles.

The XRP army and its limits

The XRP community, known online as the XRP army, has been one of the most active and loyal fanbases in the crypto space. Garlinghouse acknowledged that, but was careful not to let it define his broader worldview.

"I've never been an XRP maxi," he said.

He argued that "tribalism" is damaging to the industry as a whole and that the future of crypto is not a single-chain world.

"It's going to be a multi-chain world. I want to see Bitcoin be successful. I love what's going on in the XRP ecosystem," he said.

He pointed to XRP Las Vegas, which he attended the week prior, as a sign of how energized that community currently is, describing it as the "most vibrant" and "active" he had ever seen it.

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Building for the ecosystem, not controlling it

Garlinghouse also addressed Ripple's relationship with XRP directly, pushing back on any suggestion that ownership equals control.

"We own a ton of XRP. That doesn't give us control of XRP," he said.

Garlinghouse added that the network is not proof of stake and does not operate that way architecturally.

He framed every acquisition Ripple has made and every product it has built to accelerate the adoption, liquidity, and trustworthiness of XRP as a financial infrastructure tool.

At press time, XRP was trading at $1.43, after a climb of 1.3% in the past 24 hours. In the past seven days, XRP price has gone up by 4.7%, as per CoinGecko.

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