XRP News: Ripple’s Multi-Asset Payments Model Predates Resurfaced XRP Remarks

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse stated that XRP may serve as the optimal bridge asset for certain cross-border payments, while stablecoins could more effectively address other customer needs. These remarks regarding XRP resurfaced this week but were originally delivered on January 22.

The comments originated from Faena Rose’s January 22 program, The Transformative Power of Crypto Assets, where Garlinghouse discussed cross-border payments and digital financial infrastructure. Clips from the conversation were shared on social media on September 24, more than eight months after the original discussion.

Brad Garlinghouse

Garlinghouse’s framing was conditional rather than a definitive ranking of assets. He argued that XRP is not necessarily the best asset for every payment use case and explicitly rejected an XRP-only approach to utility. He noted that a stablecoin can solve specific customer problems more effectively depending on the transaction. Additionally, he pushed back against being labeled an XRP maximalist, framing utility as the primary test for which technology gets utilized.

This perspective aligns with the current architecture of Ripple Payments. The platform supports settlement in RLUSD, USDC, USDT, or fiat, depending on a business’s requirements and available jurisdictions. Ripple states that the settlement layer is decoupled from any single issuer’s token, allowing new stablecoins to be added without rebuilding the underlying infrastructure.

Ripple claims its underlying network handles collections, digital-asset conversion, and payouts across more than 60 markets, having processed over $100 billion in payment volume.

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XRP and RLUSD Are Structurally Different Tools Amid the News

Xrp (XRP)24h7d30d1yAll time

XRP and RLUSD are not interchangeable products merely distinguished by labels. XRP trades freely with no issuer fixing its market price, and Ripple’s documentation continues to describe it as the native cryptocurrency of the XRP Ledger, designed as a bridge asset for fast, low-cost cross-border transactions.

This mechanism underpins Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity model, where a source currency converts into XRP, moves between markets, and converts again into the destination currency without requiring pre-funded nostro accounts.

RLUSD serves a different role. Ripple describes it as a dollar-backed asset built for payments, remittances, treasury flows, and settlement. It is backed one-to-one by cash deposits, U.S. Treasuries, and cash equivalents, and is redeemable for U.S. dollars. While XRP’s value floats with the market, RLUSD is designed to maintain a peg to one dollar. This stability is precisely why a corporate treasurer moving predictable settlement volume might prefer it over an asset with price exposure.

This same logic is playing out across the broader industry as stablecoins expand their footprint in payment rails beyond any single network.

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Why Does the Timing Complicate the Read?

Garlinghouse’s January remarks predate the Senate’s September 15 cloture vote on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which failed 49-50, falling short of the 60 votes needed to advance H.R. 3633. Ripple called the outcome a missed opportunity the same day and stated that the result does not change its position on XRP’s regulatory status, citing the SEC and CFTC’s March 2026 interpretation that identifies XRP as a digital commodity.

1/ This one stings. Our team gave everything we had to get the Clarity Act across the finish line. So did most of the industry. This was an opportunity bigger than Ripple or one company – we did this for the industry, for consumers and to cement the US’s position as the crypto…

— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) September 15, 2026

This policy backdrop is separate from the asset-choice argument but shapes how the resurfaced clips are interpreted. Garlinghouse was describing a payments company optimizing for customer requirements across multiple settlement assets, not a CEO signaling reduced conviction in XRP months before a legislative setback he could not have anticipated in January.

For traders, the practical takeaway is that Ripple’s product roadmap already reflects this multi-asset posture; the executive commentary is catching up to infrastructure that was built months ago, rather than announcing a pivot away from it.

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