XRP could lose some payment flows to stablecoins, Ripple CEO says

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has said XRP is not necessarily the best asset for every payment use case, acknowledging that stablecoins can solve some customer problems more effectively.

Faena Rose’s January 22 program, titled The Transformative Power of Crypto Assets, featured Garlinghouse discussing cross-border payments, stablecoins, financial inclusion and digital financial infrastructure. Clips from the interview resurfaced on social media on September 24, more than eight months after the conversation originally took place.

The timing matters because the remarks are not a new Ripple policy announcement made this week. They show how Garlinghouse described the roles of XRP and stablecoins earlier in 2026, while Ripple’s current product documents now show a payments platform built to use several settlement assets.

Why XRP may not be the answer for every Ripple payment

During the discussion, Garlinghouse used cross-border transfers as an example of how the choice of asset can depend on the payment itself. He said “XRP is the best bridge asset” could be the answer for one transaction, while another could work better through a stablecoin.

His qualification was explicit. Garlinghouse said “a stablecoin is going to solve that problem better” in some cases, putting the customer’s payment requirement ahead of using one specific cryptocurrency. The statement was conditional and did not say stablecoins are universally better than XRP.

Garlinghouse separately rejected the label of an XRP maximalist, saying he is bullish on several cryptocurrencies for different reasons. His comments framed utility as the test for choosing technology instead of loyalty to a single token.

That approach extended to his criticism of parts of the crypto market. Garlinghouse questioned the value created during the NFT boom and said he did not understand much of the meme-coin craze. He argued that a token or technology should solve an identifiable problem if it is going to provide useful value.

For XRP, cross-border liquidity remains one of the use cases Ripple has promoted for years. The company’s current stablecoin documentation describes XRP as the native cryptocurrency of the XRP Ledger and says it was designed to operate as a bridge asset for fast, low-cost cross-border transactions.

Ripple Payments now works without dependence on one asset

Ripple’s current payment infrastructure supports the flexibility Garlinghouse described in January.

The company’s official Ripple Payments page says businesses can settle transactions using RLUSD, USDC, USDT or fiat, depending on their requirements. Ripple states that its settlement layer is “decoupled from any single issuer’s token,” allowing new stablecoins to be added without rebuilding the payment infrastructure.

The platform handles collections, digital-asset conversion and payouts across more than 60 markets. Ripple says the underlying network has processed more than $100 billion in payment volume and operates through a group holding more than 75 licenses globally.

Ripple USD has become another part of that infrastructure. Ripple describes RLUSD as a dollar-backed asset designed for payments, remittances, treasury flows and settlement. In certain jurisdictions, the company has integrated the stablecoin directly into Ripple Payments.

XRP and RLUSD therefore have different structures. XRP trades freely and has no issuer fixing its market price. RLUSD is issued against reserves and designed to maintain a value of one U.S. dollar, according to Ripple’s documentation.

As crypto.news previously reported on RLUSD’s payment role, Ripple CTO Emeritus David Schwartz described the stablecoin as capable of acting as a bridge in some transactions while distinguishing its centralized controls from XRP’s neutral asset structure.

Ripple has since expanded the stablecoin side of its payment network. In June, the company announced that Bitso’s Mexican peso-backed MXNB would join the XRP Ledger and its payment infrastructure alongside RLUSD for U.S.–Mexico settlement flows.

In related coverage, crypto.news reported on the Bitso integration, which gave enterprise clients another stablecoin option for transactions involving the Mexican peso.

Does Garlinghouse’s comment mean Ripple is moving away from XRP?

Garlinghouse did not say Ripple was abandoning XRP or replacing it with RLUSD. His statement concerned which asset can best solve a specific payment requirement.

Ripple’s own documentation continues to identify XRP as a bridge asset. At the same time, its payment product now gives customers several choices, including fiat and three dollar stablecoins.

Crypto.news previously explained how Ripple uses XRP for On-Demand Liquidity, where the source currency can be converted into XRP, transferred between markets and exchanged into the destination currency without maintaining pre-funded accounts.

RLUSD serves a different requirement because its value is intended to remain tied to the dollar. Ripple says each token is backed one-to-one by cash deposits, U.S. Treasuries and cash equivalents and can be redeemed for U.S. dollars.

Ripple’s current product strategy does not require the two assets to perform identical jobs. Its XRP Ledger AI Starter Kit, launched in June, supports X402 payments using both XRP and RLUSD, allowing developers to choose either asset for machine-to-machine payments.

The distinction has surfaced before. In related coverage, crypto.news examined the relationship between XRP and stablecoins after XRP Ledger community figures argued that the assets can occupy different parts of the same payment infrastructure.

Resurfaced comments predate the CLARITY Act setback

Garlinghouse’s Faena Rose appearance took place on January 22, months before the latest U.S. battle over the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act reached the Senate floor.

His comments about Coinbase therefore predate the September 15 procedural defeat. During the interview, Garlinghouse praised Coinbase and CEO Brian Armstrong despite policy disagreements within the U.S. crypto industry, calling Coinbase one of the country’s few large and consequential crypto companies.

The political context developed further after the interview. On September 15, the Senate rejected cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 3633 by 49 votes to 50, falling short of the 60 votes required to advance the measure. The vote was procedural and was not a final vote on passage.

Ripple responded the same day by calling the result a missed opportunity and saying it would continue working with federal policymakers. The company said the failed vote did not change its position on XRP’s U.S. regulatory status and pointed to the SEC and CFTC’s March 2026 interpretation identifying XRP as a digital commodity.

As crypto.news reported after the Senate vote, Garlinghouse said crypto adoption could continue despite the legislative defeat while maintaining support for federal market-structure legislation.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong took a similar position on the ability of regulators to proceed without Congress, arguing that the SEC and CFTC could continue developing digital-asset rules through their existing authority. Crypto.news reported his position before the vote.

The official Senate record continues to list cloture on H.R. 3633 as failed, and no new floor vote date appears in the Senate materials reviewed for this report.