XRP as ‘Northstar’: Ripple CEO Predicts Record Q1 After $2 Billion in Acquisitions

Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, speaking on Fox Business, announced the beginning of a new era for digital assets. After a series of acquisitions totaling $2 billion, the company is preparing for a record quarter, while XRP has officially been recognized as the “northstar” of the company’s development strategy.

According to Garlinghouse, the $2 billion in investments is already bearing fruit. Two key divisions of the company are showing explosive growth, in his words: 

• Ripple Prime, where revenue from the Prime Brokerage division has already tripled since the acquisition. 
• Ripple Treasury, a treasury platform that has become the gold standard for CFOs at Fortune 500 companies, allowing funds to be transferred in one minute instead of five days.

Garlinghouse emphasized that Ripple’s business growth is directly tied to the utility of XRP. “Our Northstar is utility,” he said. The more real-world use cases for XRP gain trust, the stronger the entire ecosystem becomes.

As an example of real adoption, he pointed to real estate tokenization in Dubai involving the Guggenheim Partners fund on the XRP Ledger.

“ChatGPT moment” for crypto

A key driver of growth has been the regulatory shift. A joint statement by the SEC and CFTC, recognizing 16 digital assets as commodities, was described by Garlinghouse as a historic breakthrough. The Clarity Act is expected to be passed by the end of May, which would fully unlock U.S. banks’ ability to work with stablecoins.

This is expected to open the floodgates for institutional capital that previously avoided regulatory risk. Ripple is betting that stablecoins, particularly RLUSD, along with XRP, will become the foundation of global payments.

As the Ripple CEO noted, money should not fall asleep on Friday evening, pointing to the advantage of blockchain-based settlement that operates without weekends or holidays.