Donald Trump hasn’t even moved back into the White House, but Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said he’s already seen traditional finance leaders make a significant pivot when it comes to their appetite for engaging with crypto.
In the six weeks following the 2024 presidential election, Ripple, which creates blockchain infrastructure for financial institutions, says it signed more new clients than it had in the previous six months combined.
Garlinghouse told Decrypt in an interview that many of these new traditional finance clients have said outright they are now willing to engage with crypto in the United States because they no longer fear that doing so will bring legal trouble.
“They didn’t want to fight the fight,” Garlinghouse said of American TradFi firms under Joe Biden’s presidency. “[Crypto] was just one extra headache they didn’t want to deal with.”
Since the election, however, Trump has not just continued to make digital asset-related promises—he’s also appointed a slew of pro-crypto entrepreneurs to key cabinet positions, a development that Garlinghouse says has sent an unmistakable signal to Wall Street.
“When you engage them now, they see the writing on the wall,” Garlinghouse said of TradFi leaders. “The risk of them engaging with the likes of Ripple is much, much lower.”
That the crypto industry now finds itself basking in a moment of lower risk and greater opportunity is certainly no accident. Last year, Garlinghouse and executives from a handful of America’s other top crypto firms successfully executed an unprecedented political playbook, pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into super PACs that reshaped the 2024 election and cemented their industry’s political future in the United States.
The spoils of that war are already impacting Ripple’s hiring practices and outlook. Garlinghouse says Ripple is currently hiring for over 70 new positions in the United States, meaning that about 75% of the company’s new job openings are based in America. That’s a complete reversal from the last several years, when the overwhelming majority of Ripple’s new posts were based offshore due to regulatory concerns.
“It’s not just measured by crypto prices,” Garlinghouse said of the health of the digital assets industry. “It’s measured by hiring, it’s measured by contracts signed. These are the things that drive the economy, and you’re already seeing it before [Trump’s] even in office.”
There’s certainly plenty more to be done for the industry once the president-elect is sworn in on January 20. Trump pledged last month to create the White House’s first ever crypto council, a working group of industry leaders helmed by venture capitalist David Sacks that will advise on crypto policy and legislation.
Numerous crypto executives have previously expressed interest in nabbing a seat at that coveted table. When asked whether he had already been tapped to serve on Trump’s crypto council, Garlinghouse wouldn’t say one way or the other—but added that he has been in touch with the transition team, and is aware of what they have planned when it comes to crypto policy in 2025.
“I feel really good and, frankly, very excited about what I have learned about those plans,” he said.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
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