Ripple's CEO Vows Never to Abandon XRP, but the Token's Slide Has Little to Do With That Promise

Brad Garlinghouse used the Swell conference stage in New York to shut down speculation that Ripple might quietly pivot away from XRP in favour of its stablecoin RLUSD. "We will never abandon XRP," the CEO declared, adding that the company would do nothing to harm the token's ecosystem. RLUSD, he argued, is a complement rather than a replacement — roughly half of the stablecoin's supply now sits on the XRP Ledger, with the remainder on Ethereum, and the XRPL share has been the faster-growing of the two over the past year.

Traders, however, had other things on their minds. XRP changed hands at 1.29 USD, down 2.6% on the day, as a broad retreat from risk assets overshadowed the conference headlines.

A rough session driven by macro, not messaging

The pullback reflects two forces pulling in the same direction. Falling technology stocks, rattled by unease over artificial intelligence, have weighed on Bitcoin and Ether and spilled over into the wider crypto market, according to media reports. On top of that, XRP has faced profit-taking and cooling inflows into spot exchange-traded funds. The result is a session defined by waning risk appetite rather than by anything Ripple said on stage.

Fund data offers the more concrete read on demand. On Monday, US spot XRP ETFs recorded net outflows of 3.61 million dollars, all of it from Bitwise's fund, according to figures cited from SoSoValue. The softness is not a one-day affair: in the week through 16 October, the funds posted their first weekly net outflow in 13 weeks, and flows have stayed muted since.

Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying XRP?

Multi-rail settlement leaves XRP as one option among several

Garlinghouse's commitment settles the strategic question of whether Ripple stands behind its native token. It does not settle the economic one. Settlement, by the company's own account, will not run exclusively through XRP; depending on the payment corridor and currency pair, either XRP or RLUSD may be used. The CEO himself conceded that XRP suits some transactions but not all. Ripple is sticking with the token while running a multi-product, multi-rail business — which means more activity for the company does not automatically translate into heavier use of XRP.

That distinction matters when weighing the growth figures Ripple unveiled a day earlier. The company said it is on track for an annualised product revenue run rate of roughly 900 million dollars by the end of 2026 — a projection, not revenue already booked for a full year. The expansion is being driven by payments, Ripple Prime and Ripple Treasury, along with the integration of acquired businesses; no product-level breakdown of the expected run rate was provided.

More than 1,700 institutions and enterprises now use Ripple's infrastructure, and the number of customers and partners running multiple Ripple products tripled in 2026, according to the company. Ripple also flagged expanded partnerships with BNY and Robinhood. All of this points to broader adoption of the offering — but it carries no direct claim on earnings for XRP holders, who have no entitlement to Ripple's revenue.

XRP at a turning point? This analysis reveals what investors need to know now.

What actually moves the needle for the token

For anyone valuing XRP, the relevant signals are measurable ledger activity and the token's real deployment inside Ripple's products, not corporate milestones. Whether partnerships and new use cases pull XRP deeper into payment and settlement flows is what ultimately links Ripple's expansion to demand for the asset. Fund flows, meanwhile, show whether fresh capital is entering or leaving through that investment channel — and the recent trend offers no positive impulse.

One date worth circling: on 1 November 2026, up to one billion XRP is scheduled for release from escrow. The unlock on its own proves neither that the full amount will be sold nor that it will reach the market at all, making it a watch point rather than confirmed selling pressure. Tuesday's weakness, by contrast, traces back to the risk-off mood, profit-taking and the cooled ETF flows — not to any completed additional disposal.

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