Ripple executive Reese Merrick predicted that enterprise adoption would rapidly accelerate in 2026.
“By the end of 2026, this number will increase so that all important banks, asset managers and payment networks will have significant exposure,” he said.
Merrick argues that cryptocurrencies are no longer an optional asset class, meaning that institutional investors need to adopt them to remain competitive.
Traditional finance (TradFi) banks that don’t offer crypto services will lose customers to those that do. If customers are unable to hold Bitcoin or stablecoins in their JPMorgan or Chase accounts, they will be moving their funds to fintech competitors such as Coinbase and Revolut.
“It’s no longer a ‘what if’. It’s a ‘how fast?’…The train has left the station,” he said.
Ripple’s organizational progress
Ripple has effectively spent the past 12 months transforming from a payments company to a full-stack institutional infrastructure provider.
This newfound regulatory air cover has allowed Ripple to aggressively deploy massive amounts of capital into strategic acquisitions.
Ripple has moved beyond simple payment processing into trade execution and corporate cash management by acquiring companies like Hidden Road and GTreasury.
The bombshell deal with G-Treasury was particularly powerful because it placed Ripple’s payments capabilities directly into the dashboards of corporate treasurers who manage billions of dollars of liquidity every day.
RLUSD also became part of the institutional payments flow and its market capitalization exceeded $1 billion.
