[Digital Today Seung-a Yoo, intern reporter] Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse (브래드 갈링하우스) and former chief technology officer David Schwartz (데이비드 슈워츠) offered their outlook for XRP and Ripple in five years.

On Oct. 29, Garlinghouse said at Ripple Swell 2026 that XRP is a core technology underpinning the company’s expansion of its financial services business. He said blockchain will eventually become part of everyday life like the internet, changing how people manage assets, receive payments and invest. He predicted that in five years XRP will be established as the standard for crypto payment infrastructure for institutions.

Garlinghouse described Ripple as a blockchain infrastructure company that started in payments and expanded into corporate treasury management and prime brokerage. He said XRP remains central to the company’s strategy but is not suitable for every transaction. He said it will adopt XRP first when it is reasonable to use it, adding, "Frankly, it is also what benefits us most."

He said Ripple would also use fiat currency or its own stablecoin RLUSD if those are better suited for customers. Garlinghouse said attention should be on the opportunities created as the payments market itself grows, rather than focusing only on XRP’s overall share of transactions. He said Ripple can secure part of the overall market even when using other payment methods.

He also mentioned Ripple’s business growth. Garlinghouse said the company’s revenue increased to $900 million from $300 million. He said that aligns with expectations that annualised product revenue, which was about $300 million at the end of 2025, will reach about $900 million at the end of 2026.

He also cited transaction volume of about $16 trillion that he mentioned at last year’s event. He said most of those transactions were processed through traditional financial infrastructure at the time, and added he hopes to be able to share at next year’s event that 1 to 3 percent of that volume has moved to blockchain networks.

Schwartz also predicted the mainstreaming of blockchain. He said that within five years blockchain will be widely adopted by ordinary consumers and used for asset management, receiving wages and investing, like the internet. He also raised the possibility it could become core infrastructure for financial services within about three years.

He also cited tokenisation of real-world assets, or RWA, as a driver of mainstream adoption. He said that as traditional assets move onto blockchain networks, more people will be able to use blockchain in everyday financial activities.

The executives’ outlook focused on institutional adoption of blockchain and tokenisation of real-world assets playing an important role in Ripple’s long-term growth strategy. They said that even if blockchain transactions increase, XRP will not be used for every transaction. They said Ripple plans to use a range of payment methods in parallel, including XRP, RLUSD and fiat currency, depending on customer demand.