Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse announced at XRP Community Day 2026 that the company will slow down its acquisition pace for now. After an acquisition spree totaling over $2.4 billion in 2025, the primary focus for 2026 will be integration.
Yet from the second half of the year onward, Ripple could become "more acquisitive" again, according to Garlinghouse. Valued at $40 billion, the company is following a clear direction. XRP remains the "North Star" of the entire corporate strategy. Beyond integration, Garlinghouse voiced his ambition to make Ripple the first trillion-dollar crypto company.
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Four acquisitions in eight months: Ripple's 2025 expansion push
Ripple closed four acquisitions in 2025, with a verified total volume of at least $2.4 billion. Its largest deal was the purchase of prime broker Hidden Road for $1.25 billion. This firm processes over $3 trillion in annual clearing volume for more than 300 institutional clients. Since the deal closed in October 2025, Hidden Road operates as Ripple Prime.
Just days earlier, Ripple had announced the acquisition of GTreasury for $1 billion. This treasury management specialist serves over 1,000 clients in more than 160 countries and manages payment volumes of $12.5 trillion. Additional acquisitions included stablecoin payments platform Rail for $200 million and custody provider Palisade, whose purchase price was not disclosed. Rail processes over 10 percent of the B2B stablecoin payments market, estimated at $36 billion.
Garlinghouse himself put Ripple's total 2025 investments at "roughly $4 billion into the crypto ecosystem." The gap between this figure and the verifiable $2.4 billion likely includes strategic investments and the undisclosed Palisade purchase price.
XRP infrastructure: traditional finance assets instead of crypto acquisitions
Ripple's acquisition strategy differs fundamentally from other crypto companies. Garlinghouse emphasized at XRP Community Day:
"Unlike other crypto companies, we've focused on buying what I would call traditional financial assets." - Brad Garlinghouse, CEO Ripple
Specifically, Ripple is building a five-pillar structure. It encompasses cross-border payments (Ripple Payments), prime brokerage (Ripple Prime), treasury management (GTreasury), custody (Palisade), and stablecoins (RLUSD plus Rail). Each pillar drives utility and liquidity around XRP and the XRP Ledger. In turn, the goal is a fully integrated financial infrastructure company for institutional clients.
This institutional anchoring was also evident in the November 2025 funding round. Fortress Investment Group, Citadel Securities, Pantera Capital, Galaxy Digital, Brevan Howard, and Marshall Wace invested a combined $500 million. As a result, Ripple's valuation rose to $40 billion, representing a 254 percent increase over the $11.3 billion valuation in January 2024. The participation of Wall Street heavyweights like Citadel Securities signals growing institutional confidence. After all, traditional financial institutions had been skeptical of the crypto sector for years.
Integration year 2026 with an open timeline
Garlinghouse made clear at XRP Community Day that Ripple first needs to consolidate its existing acquisitions. Hidden Road has already transitioned into Ripple Prime and has tripled since the announcement, according to the company. GTreasury is still awaiting closing. Meanwhile, Rail and Palisade are in the integration process.
"We will probably slow down the acquisition wave in 2026, which makes our corporate development team very happy." - Brad Garlinghouse, CEO Ripple
At the same time, Garlinghouse did not rule out larger acquisitions in the second half of the year. Ripple intends to wait for operational consolidation before deploying new capital for deals. Currently, the company holds 75 regulatory licenses worldwide. Its payments volume exceeds $95 billion. After years of litigation with the SEC between 2020 and 2023, Ripple repositioned itself through an aggressive M&A strategy.
Trillion-dollar ambition and the XRP ecosystem
Garlinghouse once again positioned XRP as the core of all business activities. His ambition extends far beyond the current enterprise value.
"There will be a trillion-dollar crypto company, I have no doubt about that for a second. I think Ripple has the opportunity, if we execute well in partnership with the entire XRP ecosystem, to be that company." - Brad Garlinghouse, CEO Ripple
From the current $40 billion valuation to the trillion-dollar mark, a 25x increase would be required. Ripple's in-house stablecoin RLUSD reached a market capitalization of $1 billion within one year. In addition, XRP ETFs recorded cumulative inflows of $1.37 billion through mid-January 2026. This included a streak of 35 consecutive trading days without outflows.
Still, the XRP price sits well below the 2025 all-time high of $3.56. Whether Ripple's infrastructure strategy will ultimately translate into token demand remains an open question. Much depends on how extensively the integrated TradFi products actually use XRP-based liquidity. Ripple now faces the challenge of shaping a conglomerate of traditional financial services providers into a coherent ecosystem.
