From CryptoPotato · By Jordan Lyanchev
Ripple closed out a highly busy Swell 2026 conference with major announcements and developments involving some industry and TradFi giants such as Coinbase, Robinhood, and BNY, as well as major regulatory news.
Meanwhile, XRP Ledger developers proposed tighter control for permissioned assets. However, Ripple’s cross-border token has slumped to new local lows.
Ripple News
Perhaps the most notable takeaway for the XRP Army from Swell came directly from CEO Brad Garlinghouse, who pushed back against concerns that the company’s rapidly expanding RLUSD business has sidelined XRP. He described the latter as the firm’s “North Star,” saying Ripple only wants to pursue activities that benefit the cross-border token. Nevertheless, he acknowledged that RLUSD or fiat currencies can be more appropriate for certain financial transactions.
The stablecoin itself received several significant boosts that prompted the aforementioned claims within the Ripple community. Coinbase expanded access across several of its platforms, including Coinbase Prime, Coinbase Exchange, and its retail app, with support spanning XRPL, Ethereum, and Base.
Ripple also unveiled a broader partnership with Robinhood, under which RLUSD will play a role across Bitstamp, institutional settlement, and eventually the main application. Vlad Tenev’s company will integrate Ripple Treasury into its internal financial operations.
Separately, BNY expanded custody support to XRP and RLUSD, while Moody’s assigned the stablecoin an A2 long-term and P-1 short-term investment-grade rating, with the latter representing the agency’s highest short-term grade under its stablecoin framework.
Ripple said its product revenue run rate is approaching $900 million annually. The company also received final OCC approval to establish Ripple National Trust Bank, giving it a federally supervised entity designed to support RLUSD reserves and institutional digital-asset custody.
Ripple’s corporate-finance ambitions also grew, with Ripple Treasury bringing together AI-powered cash management, payments, forecasting, and liquidity tools, including 24/7 Returns for eligible businesses holding qualifying digital assets such as RLUSD.
XRPL Developments
The XRP Ledger is also receiving new institutional use cases as Ripple and C2FO are working to bring the latter’s Instant Pay settlement platform onto XRPL. They also want to use RLUSD to help suppliers receive funds in seconds rather than waiting days for conventional bank transfers to clear.
XRPL devs proposed four code changes designed to tighten restrictions around permissioned tokens, such as regulated stablecoins or tokenized funds that issuers only want approved accounts to hold. The proposed fixCleanup3_5_0 upgrade would close several remaining exceptions, including routes involving automated market makers, and would generally restrict unapproved holders to returning tokens to their issuer until authorization is granted.