Ripple CEO Praises Bessent as Swell Highlights Financial Partnerships

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse praised U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as the company’s Swell conference opened, crediting his leadership with helping create a more supportive environment for responsible cryptocurrency businesses. The remarks accompanied announcements extending Ripple’s reach across corporate treasury, institutional custody and financial services partnerships.

According to Bitcoin.com News, Garlinghouse’s comments continued a pattern of endorsements of Bessent’s approach to digital assets. His praise represented the company executive’s assessment of the policy environment, rather than an announcement of a new Treasury measure or government endorsement of Ripple’s products.

The business announcements around Swell provided a more concrete picture of Ripple’s priorities. Company releases described efforts to connect stablecoins, payments, custody and treasury management, positioning those services as linked infrastructure for businesses rather than separate cryptocurrency products.

On October 26, 2026, Ripple announced new corporate cash-management capabilities under Ripple Treasury, including a feature called 24/7 Returns. The company said eligible corporate customers could earn returns on qualifying digital assets, including its dollar-backed stablecoin RLUSD, held in a Ripple wallet and subject to program requirements.

Ripple framed the treasury offering as a way to put operating cash to work overnight, on weekends and during holidays. The proposed benefit is greater continuity between cash management and payment execution, although eligibility conditions mean the feature should not be treated as universally available to corporate customers.

A separate partnership announced with Robinhood on October 27 spans customer-facing services and the trading platform’s internal operations. Ripple said RLUSD was already available on Robinhood Chain and Bitstamp by Robinhood, with availability in the Robinhood app expected later in 2026. Robinhood also plans to use RLUSD on the XRP Ledger for institutional settlement.

The relationship extends to Robinhood’s planned integration of Ripple Treasury for cash and liquidity management, forecasting, payments and risk management. It also includes institutional financing and trading services through Ripple Prime, illustrating how Ripple is seeking broader commercial relationships across multiple parts of a partner’s business.

Ripple’s expanded collaboration with BNY, also announced October 27, focuses on institutional custody and tokenized trade finance. According to Ripple, BNY now supports XRP and RLUSD on its Digital Asset Custody platform, building on its existing role as RLUSD’s primary reserve custodian. The companies also intend to enable clients to mint and redeem RLUSD directly through BNY.

Those ambitions include exploring a supply-chain finance initiative with working-capital platform C2FO. Ripple said the work would examine how blockchain-based representations of trade-finance assets could broaden investor access, but described the initiative as exploratory. Future BNY product plans remain subject to final bank and regulatory approvals.

Together, the announcements show Ripple seeking to translate a more favorable policy narrative into practical financial services. The next test is implementation: delivering planned integrations, extending access to eligible customers and moving exploratory projects toward operational use. Garlinghouse’s endorsement of Bessent supplies the political backdrop, while the partnerships’ rollout will provide clearer evidence of commercial progress.