Ripple recently hosted its ninth annual Swell conference in New York City, joining financial pioneers from around the world. Covered live by CoinDesk, the event once again brought together a cross-section of participants from traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi).
The return to the world’s financial capital felt well-timed as speakers repeatedly pointed to the shift in blockchain’s role in global finance from speculative to operational. Conversations ranged from the state of crypto today to exciting opportunities ahead while touching on regulatory roadblocks, increased utility and potential new applications.
Read on for the five themes that emerged over the course of the event.
1. Real-world utility eclipses experimentation
Throughout the two-day event, there was consensus that blockchain-related projects have moved out of pilot and into production. From onchain finance to stablecoin payments, speakers shared the digital asset use cases that are actively delivering tangible business benefits and value today.
“When we started this project…” was a common refrain heard across stages—a nod to how far the industry has progressed from early days proofs-of-concept in such a short time.
Ripple President Monica Long set the tone in her opening remarks when she highlighted the many ways customers are deploying Ripple solutions. Both Braza Bank and Zand Bank are using Ripple Payments to expand into new markets and offer real-time U.S. payouts. Corpay is leveraging the Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin in its corporate treasury operations. And DBS Bank now utilizes Ripple Custody to move capital-markets activity onchain.
All of these examples underscore the broader shift that financial institutions and corporates have made in operationalizing and monetizing crypto within their existing financial offerings and workflows.
Dan Chen, Chief Financial Officer at Gemini, summed up the sentiment neatly: “Crypto will be at the core of all financial services.”
2. The TradFi-DeFi convergence is accelerating
Across Swell, talk of stablecoins, RWA tokenization and digital asset custody dominated discussions. All three serve as bridges between TradFi and DeFi, enabling financial institutions and corporates to apply the benefits of crypto and blockchain to existing products and strategies.
With nearly $3 trillion in projected onchain transaction volume—a 90% year-over-year increase—stablecoins have evolved into the operational cash layer for digital finance. RLUSD alone has surpassed $1 billion in market cap and is being actively leveraged for cross-border payments, global stablecoin and FX settlement, and as collateral in capital markets.
RWA tokenization was touted by Rory Callagy, Managing Director at Moody’s Investors Services, as the next big innovation in asset management after the ETF. The ability to represent money-market funds, stocks, carbon credits or anything else of value as a token on a blockchain confers the benefits of instant settlement, enhanced liquidity, fractional ownership and 24/7 trading. Robinhood’s VP of Crypto Institutions, Nicola White, said that at some point we’ll stop talking about tokenization and just highlight the actual products because the supporting technology will become so common that it’s invisible.
Unsurprisingly, all roads at Swell seemed to lead back to custody. Banking leaders from around the world agreed that digital asset custody is the starting point for every institutional crypto initiative. It provides the security, compliance and management foundation that allows institutions to engage with tokenized assets and stablecoins at scale. As Intesa Sanpaolo’s Head of Financial Institutions Product, Michela Rabbia, put it: “Custody is where innovation begins.”
3. Crypto has gone institutional
If the last few years were about retail enthusiasm for crypto, 2025 has been about institutional embrace. From new, crypto-related IPOs and corporate treasury adoption to increasing demand for XRP through exchange-traded products (ETPs), crypto has taken center stage as a strategic priority.
Institutional leaders at Swell spoke confidently about their crypto strategies, with many predicting that corporates and treasury teams will drive a new wave of adoption. Hunter Horsley, CEO of Bitwise, captured the mood: “I have never seen it feel as inevitable as it does right now that crypto will be a mainstream asset class.”
The push to incorporate crypto into everyday enterprise workflows is driven by the benefits of real-time settlement, liquidity mobility and 24/7 trading. But these same advantages also make crypto appealing to philanthropy and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Both are turning to solutions like RLUSD and Ripple Payments to enable faster money movement for global aid delivery and funding. Chef José Andrés, founder of the nonprofit World Central Kitchen, joined Ripple co-founder and Executive Chairman Chris Larsen in a fireside chat that touched on this growing use case.
4. Regulation and global standards are the industry’s biggest unlock
While there was broad optimism about global regulatory momentum—from Europe’s MiCA framework to progress surrounding the U.S. GENIUS Act—speakers agreed there is more work to be done. Standardization across markets emerged as a rallying cry. Reciprocal licensing regimes, harmonized reporting requirements and interoperable standards were cited by multiple panelists as critical enablers for mass adoption.
Franklin Templeton’s Head of Innovation Sandy Kaul even called for instant, shared identity frameworks across companies and international borders. She believes we need to revisit how technologies like a zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) could enable a new era of transparency.
Her fellow panelists agreed that global standards are needed, saying that the real barriers to scale are not technology issues, but people or regulatory ones.
It’s clear that with the technology ready, the policy scaffolding must now catch up.
5. Ripple’s M&A strategy
With six major acquisitions in two years, a new $40 billion valuation and expansion across the payments, custody, stablecoin, and prime brokerage solutions, Ripple is clearly positioning itself as the one-stop infrastructure provider for institutions that want to move value as information moves today.
Ripple’s customers increasingly reflect that reality. Global banks, corporates, asset managers, exchanges, and NGOs are using Ripple solutions to move money, secure and manage assets, settle markets, and deliver aid at speeds and efficiencies that traditional rails cannot match.
CEO Brad Garlinghouse framed the ambition plainly: “Ripple aspires—and I think we are clearly in the lead—to be the blockchain infrastructure company. Period.”
Watch additional footage from Ripple Swell 2025 or contact our sales team to get started on your blockchain strategy today.
