Garlinghouse: Ripple’s Vision is to “Rewire Banking,” Not Fight Bitcoin

• Garlinghouse said that everyone is underestimating just how big that change actually is
• He doesn’t see the Bitcoin community as an enemy, saying that if it does well, the XRP community will do too
• Garlinghouse views the Hidden Road acquisition as a strategic entry into stablecoins, offering something more integrated and infrastructure-driven than just launching a coin

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has recently made bold statements about the company’s vision to rewire the entire banking system. More precisely, during a speech at the XRP Las Vegas conference , 

Garlinghouse referenced David Schwartz (CTO of Ripple) talking about rewiring the banking system a day earlier, and emphasized how everyone is underestimating just how big that change actually is.

A Call for Crypto Unity, Not Tribalism

Interestingly, Garlinghouse also noted that he doesn’t see the Bitcoin community as an enemy, saying that if it does well, the XRP community will do too. On that note, Ripple donated the Skull of Satoshi to the Bitcoin community as a gesture of unity.

During the speech, Garlinghouse highlighted the fact that crypto infighting is damaging the entire industry and that maximalism is a dying breed. 

Instead, he advocated for collaboration across crypto communities to grow the space beyond the current 300 million or so users to billions.

Hidden Road Buy: Ripple’s Bet on Converging Finance

In April, it was reported that Ripple was acquiring Hidden Road, a fast-growing non-bank prime broker that cleared $3 trillion last year. The acquisition is said to be worth $1.25 billion. Garlinghouse touched base on this topic as well, saying that Ripple wants to build long-term infrastructure for financial institutions, betting on the growing convergence of traditional and decentralized finance.

The plan is for Hidden Road to use Ripple’s stablecoin (RLUSD) for settlement and also accept RLUSD as collateral for lending on its platform. This will drive adoption and utility of RLUSD and boost the XRP Ledger ecosystem.

Ripple’s CEO views this as a strategic entry into stablecoins, offering something more integrated and infrastructure-driven than just launching a coin.

Garlinghouse: Tech is Not Zero-Sum; XRP Aims for Top Utility

During his Las Vegas talk, he shared his belief that tech and crypto are not zero-sum games, meaning success for Bitcoin can mean success for XRP and others. Garlinghouse supports collaboration over competition, especially to achieve transformative goals like rewiring the global financial system.

As for Ripple, the company is focused on making XRP the most trusted, useful, and liquid digital asset on the planet. At least, that’s what Garlinghouse states, and we’ll have to wait and see if that will turn out to be true.