Ripple to host Swell 2026 in New York, expects 1,500+ attendees and 100 speakers

Ripple Brings Wall Street Executives to Swell 2026

The event is set to take place at The Shed in Manhattan, featuring a notable lineup of top executives from major financial institutions, including CME Group, BNY, Robinhood, Intercontinental Exchange, Barclays, and State Street. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse will be joined by CME Group Chairman and CEO Terrence Duffy, Bullish CEO Tom Farley, and other industry leaders, highlighting an agenda focused on the convergence of traditional finance and blockchain technology.

Hollywood actor Matt Damon, alongside Water.org cofounder Gary White, will participate in discussions on global water financing solutions, bringing attention to the social impact potential of financial innovation.

Executives from CME Group, BNY, Robinhood, and Intercontinental Exchange will join Ripple at Swell 2026, signaling a growing institutional interest in blockchain-powered infrastructure.

For the first time, Ripple will merge Swell with two additional events: XRPL Apex, focused on XRP Ledger development, and UBRI Connect, centered on academic blockchain research. This approach aims to facilitate collaboration between financial executives, developers, and researchers.

The official agenda lists more than 80 sessions across three stages, delving into tokenized assets, institutional payments, stablecoins, crypto markets, and the future evolution of the XRP Ledger.

A major point of interest includes Ripple’s recently announced collaboration with DriveWealth, a global brokerage technology firm. The agenda includes a joint session on October 28 to explore how RLUSD, a Ripple-issued stablecoin, could support settlement and funding for international brokerage operations serving over 100 financial partners. No new product rollouts have been confirmed as part of the conference.

Mini dictionary: DriveWealth is a US-based financial technology company offering infrastructure for brokerage services, enabling global partners to provide trading and settlement solutions for stocks and other assets.

XRP Ledger Lending and RLUSD Expansion Enter the Spotlight

Beyond collaboration announcements, Swell 2026 will spotlight technical developments aimed at enabling more financial assets on public blockchains, including asset tokenization and stablecoin-based settlements. Ripple’s institutional services have expanded rapidly, encompassing custody arrangements, brokerage, and ongoing stablecoin integrations.

Notably, global bank Standard Chartered recently integrated RLUSD into its services. Additionally, Ripple formed a new partnership with Arf to extend RLUSD-powered financing to the XRP Ledger, connecting blockchain infrastructure to an established cross-border payments business with approximately $10 billion in annual volume.

This initiative may leverage XRPL’s proposed native lending framework if approved by network validators, which remains a pending step.

Mini dictionary: Arf is a blockchain-based global settlement network that provides digital asset and liquidity services to licensed financial institutions, focused on facilitating cross-border payments.

Meanwhile, Coinpaper’s recent amendment report indicated that a planned XRP Ledger cleanup upgrade has been delayed to a possible November 4 activation. Conference sessions will feature technical leaders such as Ripple Chief Technology Officer David Schwartz and RippleX engineering executive Ayo Akinyele, addressing these infrastructure updates and the challenges of scaling institutional adoption.

Ripple traditionally uses Swell to announce ecosystem partnerships and new capabilities, making it a key event for market participants monitoring its product evolution and business momentum.

The Swell agenda is set to explore spot XRP exchange-traded funds, institutional liquidity, tokenization, and digital-asset custody for the first time, reflecting the shift toward mainstream financial integration.

Despite the expansion of institutional and technical partnerships, direct demand for XRP may not increase at the same pace. Many institutional use cases rely on RLUSD and tokenized securities, reducing the immediate need to purchase or hold the network’s native cryptocurrency.