Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, used a May 7 appearance on Eleanor Terrett’s Crypto In America podcast at XRP Las Vegas to address a recurring question from the XRP community: whether holders of XRP should receive a more direct benefit from Ripple’s growing business value. His answer was supportive of the community but cautious on timing, framing Ripple’s current contribution as indirect support through liquidity, utility, institutional adoption and ecosystem development.
Garlinghouse Weighs Benefits for XRP Holders
Garlinghouse said Ripple remains closely aligned with XRP because of its own holdings and business strategy. Responding to questions about Ripple’s role in the XRP community, he rejected the idea that the company’s commitment to the asset should be in doubt, pointing to Ripple’s position as a major XRP holder and its commercial focus on products tied to the broader ecosystem.
“Today, Ripple is still the largest holder of XRP on the planet. We are the most interested party in seeing XRP be successful. We will continue to be the most interested party in seeing XRP be successful,” Garlinghouse said. He added that Ripple is focused on making XRP “the most useful digital asset,” “the most liquid digital asset” and “the most trusted digital asset,” particularly through services sold to financial institutions and capital markets clients.
The discussion turned more directly to whether XRP holders should share in Ripple’s corporate success after Terrett noted Ripple’s scale, acquisitions and recent valuation. Garlinghouse said Ripple’s last share buyback was conducted at a $50 billion mark. Terrett also raised the idea that some in the community have suggested an XRP token buyback or similar mechanism that would allow XRP holders to participate more directly in Ripple’s wealth, while noting the distinction between Ripple the company, the XRP Ledger and XRP the token.
Garlinghouse’s answer first moved through the complexities of private-market liquidity, including the Linqto bankruptcy and Linqto’s roughly 3% equity stake in Ripple. He said Ripple could theoretically buy back that equity, but doing so would create tension with holders seeking the highest possible price because Ripple’s fiduciary obligation would be to buy at the lowest possible price. On that basis, he indicated Ripple is more likely to let the Linqto process proceed through bankruptcy and the related secondary-market structure.
He then addressed the core issue: whether XRP holders should benefit directly from Ripple’s success. “Well, I hope XRP holders feel like they are benefiting from Ripple’s existence by virtue of what we’re doing to try to catalyze things within the XRP community. You know, is there a scenario if and when Ripple goes public, would we do something special for people who hold XRP or something? Maybe,” Garlinghouse said.
Garlinghouse emphasized that any such direct measure is not an active near-term plan. “But I mean, that’s not in the immediate term,” he said, while adding that supporting XRP holders remains important to Ripple’s corporate thinking. He described the XRP community as a “driving mission” for Ripple and said the company evaluates acquisitions, investments and partnerships through the lens of whether they can catalyze XRP adoption or strengthen the surrounding ecosystem.
Ripple CEO Says Direct Rewards Are Not Immediate
Garlinghouse’s comments drew a line between indirect ecosystem support and direct economic rewards. Ripple’s current position, as he described it, is that XRP holders benefit when Ripple builds products and partnerships that expand XRP’s liquidity, use and credibility, rather than through an immediate distribution, buyback or shareholder-style arrangement tied to Ripple’s corporate balance sheet.
“I freaking love the XRP family. It is such a. And so I want to do things that are good for the XRP community,” Garlinghouse said during the interview. He added that when Ripple considers acquisitions, it asks how those moves “catalyze things within XRP,” and when it makes outside investments, it considers whether people will adopt XRP.
One example he cited was Evernorth, which he described as a “high class, high quality digital asset treasury company” that Ripple wants to see exist. “We think that’s good for the community. We think it’s good for Ripple shareholders. We think it’s good for everybody,” Garlinghouse said, adding that Ripple would “continue to lean into things like that.”
The Ripple CEO also linked the company’s broader institutional strategy to XRP’s long-term position. He said Ripple does not always disclose every element of its strategy because doing so could inform competitors, but maintained that its initiatives are intended to support XRP even when the connection is not immediately obvious. That point came in response to past community concerns, including whether Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin could compete with or replace XRP in Ripple’s product stack.
“We’re going to do things that may not at first blush make crystal clear sense,” Garlinghouse said. “But I swear to you, even if it doesn’t have a direct line from point A to point B, point B being good for XRP, it may be point A to point B to point B to point C.” He said Ripple’s work remains “in service” of expanding liquidity, utility and trust in XRP.
Garlinghouse’s remarks also touched on regulation and Ripple’s U.S. posture, though those comments were separate from the question of direct rewards for holders. He reiterated that XRP has legal clarity following a federal judge’s finding that “XRP in and of itself is not a security,” and said Ripple supports the Clarity Act because it believes broader U.S. crypto legislation would benefit the industry. For XRP holders, however, the central takeaway from the Las Vegas discussion was narrower: Ripple may consider something special for holders if it eventually goes public, but no direct reward program is imminent.
🚨NEW: This week on the podcast, we air @EleanorTerrett’s interview with @Ripple CEO @bgarlinghouse at XRP Las Vegas, where they discussed Ripple’s expansion since the SEC lawsuit, Clarity Act time crunch & whether XRP holders should benefit more directly from Ripple’s success. pic.twitter.com/CyBtLdkiho
— Crypto In America (@CryptoAmerica_) May 7, 2026
AI Transparency Note: This article was prepared with the assistance of an AI system based on the sources listed and was reviewed, edited, and approved by a human editor before publication. All quotes, data points, and factual claims are intended to be grounded in the cited source material; however, errors cannot be ruled out entirely.
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