Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has marked the 10th anniversary of the firm's flagship Swell conference, where he shared some of the biggest announcements from the event and noted an unexpected appearance by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
The Ripple CEO shared his thoughts on the launch of the Swell 2026 conference in New York City in a recent X post.
Brad Garlinghouse took to X to excitedly express his feelings about the first day of Swell 2026. “We're kicking off 10 years of RippleSwell with a bang!” the Ripple boss said.
The current Swell event is the tenth edition of the annual conference that was launched in October 2017 in Toronto.
Throughout the years, the Swell event has turned into a major conference for financial institutions, policymakers, blockchain developers and XRP community members.
Bessent steals the spotlight
A video appearance from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was one of the major highlights of Swell's first day. He joined Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse in a discussion.
Garlinghouse called it an honor that he got to open the event with Scott Bessent.
The Ripple CEO commended the Treasury Secretary for his work in shaping the regulatory landscape for digital assets in the U.S.
“His leadership and the current administration have been key to making sure that responsible crypto has a home in the US,” Garlinghouse noted.
The Ripple CEO thanked Scott Bessent for being a part of the event and for his time.
Ripple shares big announcements
In addition to the video appearance from Scott Bessent, Garlinghouse also mentioned some big announcements the firm made alongside the anniversary celebrations.
One of the most notable announcements is that Ripple is expanding its partnership with Robinhood, where the firm's financial infrastructure will be integrated into customer-facing products and internal systems.
Brad Garlinghouse also noted the expansion of the firm's partnership with banking giant BNY. The new partnership will cover institutional digital asset custody and tokenized trade finance solutions with RLUSD, XRP and XRP Ledger.
Another important announcement was the launch of 24/7 Returns by Ripple Treasury.
The final announcement that Brad Garlinghouse mentioned was Ripple's latest regulatory victory. The firm received final approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to open Ripple National Trust Bank.
Once the federally regulated institution becomes active, it will be responsible for managing RLUSD reserves and institutional digital asset custody.
“And it's only day 0 (yes, Swell main event is tomorrow!). More to come this week,” Garlinghouse said.
The main Swell event will take place on October 28–29. Many influential guests from traditional finance and crypto will attend.
