Key Highlights
- Institutional discussions will examine the first year of spot $XRP ETFs, bank adoption, trading liquidity, and settlement.
- Ripple executives and industry leaders will address stablecoins, tokenized assets, privacy, scaling, artificial intelligence, and decentralized finance.
- Ripple says the $XRP Ledger has operated for more than 13 years, processed well over $1 trillion in volume, and supports a WaterCredit initiative that has mobilized $8.2 billion.
$XRP ETFs and Bank Adoption Take Center Stage
The institutional program will examine how digital assets are reshaping banks, asset managers, and fintech companies, with $XRP exchange-traded funds and settlement among the central topics. Sessions will discuss the first year of spot $XRP ETFs, which give investors cryptocurrency exposure through exchange-listed shares, alongside artificial intelligence systems designed to move money and the requirements for deploying digital assets in bank-grade production environments.
The speaker roster brings together executives responsible for financial-market infrastructure and leaders expanding access to digital assets through trading platforms. Swell participants from BNY and Robinhood include Laide Majiyagbe, BNY’s Global Head of Markets, and Johann Kerbrat, Robinhood’s Senior Vice President and General Manager of Crypto and International.
Majiyagbe will join Tradeweb CEO Billy Hult to discuss trading, liquidity, and settlement. Kerbrat will appear alongside Ripple President Monica Long. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse will moderate a markets discussion with Tom Farley, chairman and CEO of crypto exchange Bullish (NYSE: BLSH), who previously served as president of the New York Stock Exchange.
Stablecoins, Tokenized Assets, and Payments
Stablecoin issuance models will be examined in a debate featuring Elizabeth St-Onge, Head of Digital Assets Product and Strategy at investment bank TD Securities, alongside leaders from the payments industry. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies pegged to assets such as the U.S. dollar. The discussion will compare individual issuers with collaborative consortium models.
Michael Blaugrund, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at exchange operator Intercontinental Exchange, will address tokenized equities, funds, and collateral. The program also includes a session involving Water.org co-founders Matt Damon and Gary White on Ripple Payments and RLUSD, Ripple’s dollar stablecoin, in transfers supporting access to water and sanitation.
White’s WaterCredit financing model has mobilized $8.2 billion and reached 92 million people, with a target of reaching 200 million people by 2030.
Privacy, Scaling, and AI Define Developer Sessions
The ecosystem track will focus on the technology supporting the $XRP Ledger and the applications being developed around it. David Schwartz, Ripple’s Chief Technology Officer Emeritus, will join Ayo Akinyele, senior director of engineering at RippleX, Ripple’s developer-focused team, to discuss the ledger’s future.
Akinyele’s focus includes privacy, scaling, and institutional infrastructure. Schwartz has highlighted $XRP applications in payments, tokenization, and decentralized finance, including blockchain-based financial services and digital representations of assets.
Enterprise participation and regional developer support will also feature in the ecosystem program. Brett Mollin, Executive Director of the $XRP Ledger Foundation, will discuss businesses operating validators, which help confirm transactions. David Bchiri, president of community organization XRPL Commons, will participate in a panel on support for builders, including collaboration with the foundation, RippleX, and the regional initiative $XRP Asia.
Researchers Examine AI, Cryptography, and Financial Systems
Academic sessions in the innovation track will explore the relationship between artificial intelligence, cryptography, security, and financial systems. Ari Juels, a professor at Cornell Tech, will examine how AI is changing crypto and how crypto-aligned technologies could support the AI ecosystem.
Kevin Werbach, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, will address autonomous software that connects decentralized finance with traditional markets. A hackathon, bringing developers together to build projects, is scheduled for the weekend before the main event.
Why This Matters
The program reflects the expanding range of issues surrounding institutional digital-asset adoption, from spot $XRP ETFs and bank settlement to stablecoin structures, tokenized financial products, validator operations, and AI-enabled financial software. It also links market infrastructure discussions with developer activity and academic research across privacy, security, scaling, and decentralized finance.
Ripple states that the $XRP Ledger has operated for more than 13 years and processed well over $1 trillion in volume. The company also says its solutions enabled trillions of dollars in transactions last year, placing the event’s institutional and ecosystem discussions within a broader account of network usage and financial applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
What will the institutional program cover?
It will cover the first year of spot $XRP ETFs, trading, liquidity, settlement, AI systems that move money, bank-grade digital-asset production, stablecoin issuance, tokenized assets, and collateral.
Which Ripple and industry leaders are participating?
Participants include Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple President Monica Long, Chief Technology Officer Emeritus David Schwartz, RippleX senior director of engineering Ayo Akinyele, BNY Global Head of Markets Laide Majiyagbe, Robinhood executive Johann Kerbrat, and Bullish Chairman and CEO Tom Farley.
What is planned for developers and researchers?
Developer and research sessions will address privacy, scaling, institutional infrastructure, validator operations, AI, cryptography, security, and decentralized finance. A hackathon is scheduled for the weekend before the main event.
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