Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has pushed back against the idea that investors must choose XRP over other major cryptocurrencies, saying he remains bullish on multiple digital assets, including Solana, for different reasons.
Garlinghouse’s comments have resurfaced as XRP and Solana both trade near important technical levels following recent gains.
“I’m not one of these people who’s an XRP maximalist, I’m bullish on a bunch of cryptos for a bunch of reasons,” Garlinghouse said when asked why someone should hold XRP rather than Solana over the next five years. The remarks, originally made earlier in 2026, have gained renewed attention in September.
His position puts the focus on utility rather than loyalty to a particular cryptocurrency. He argued that the appropriate digital asset depends on the problem being addressed, particularly in cross-border payments. He also acknowledged that stablecoins could sometimes provide a more suitable solution than XRP.
XRP and Solana Can Serve Different Roles
Garlinghouse did not frame Solana as an asset that must lose for XRP to succeed. Instead, his comments suggest that both networks can develop around different applications and sources of demand.
Garlinghouse views XRP as a potential bridge asset for cross-border payments while acknowledging that stablecoins may be better suited to some use cases. Source: @BullrunnersHQ via X
When discussing international payments, he pointed to XRP’s potential role as a bridge asset. In a cross-border transaction, XRP can potentially facilitate the movement of value between different currencies and payment systems without requiring the same asset to be held on both sides.
“It could be that XRP is the best bridge asset for that purpose, or it could be that, no, a stablecoin is going to solve that problem better,” Garlinghouse said, according to reports citing his earlier remarks.
That distinction is significant because it places XRP’s value proposition around its function. Rather than arguing that XRP should automatically be preferred because it is associated with Ripple, Garlinghouse has emphasized whether a particular asset provides an effective solution for a specific payment requirement.
XRP Cross-Border Payments Use Case
XRP was designed as the native asset of the XRP Ledger and has long been positioned for fast, low-cost settlement and use as a bridge asset. Ripple’s current payments infrastructure, however, extends beyond XRP and supports multiple settlement options.
Ripple says its payments products can handle fiat and several stablecoins, including RLUSD, USDC, and USDT, depending on the customer’s requirements and jurisdiction. Its current cross-border payments offering describes the ability to exchange currencies using stablecoins and digital assets and to make payouts in fiat or stablecoins.
This broader approach helps explain Garlinghouse’s comments. If a customer requires price stability, a dollar-backed stablecoin may be more appropriate than an asset whose market value fluctuates. Conversely, XRP can potentially provide a bridge between currencies where liquidity and settlement characteristics make it useful.
Ripple’s own stablecoin strategy also illustrates this distinction. RLUSD is designed to maintain a value of one U.S. dollar and is issued on the XRP Ledger and Ethereum. Ripple says it is intended for payments, remittances, treasury activity, and other settlement use cases.
XRP and Solana Price Trends
The discussion comes as both XRP and Solana have posted notable gains over the recent period, although their technical structures differ.
XRP was trading around $1.54-$1.55 on September 26, based on the technical snapshot provided for this analysis. The token remained above its 50-day and 200-day moving averages near $1.32 and $1.28, respectively. Daily RSI readings around 61-64 indicated positive momentum without reaching the traditional 70 threshold associated with overbought conditions.
XRP price chart. Source: Brave New Coin
The XRP chart also showed resistance around $1.58-$1.60. A sustained move above that zone could put the recent $1.65-$1.66 area back into focus, while the $1.31-$1.32 region represents a deeper technical reference point. These levels are technical observations rather than guarantees of future price direction.
Solana was trading near $121-$122 over the same period. The technical snapshot showed SOL holding above its major moving averages, including the 50-day and 200-day averages. However, several momentum indicators were already elevated, with RSI near 68-70 and Stochastic readings in overbought territory.
Solana (SOL) price chart. Source: Brave New Coin
For SOL, the $122-$123 area represented an immediate resistance zone, while support was concentrated around $119-$120. A move through resistance or a breakdown below support could provide additional information about the direction of the next short-term move.
The contrasting indicator readings illustrate why Garlinghouse’s comments are not necessarily a simple XRP-versus-Solana comparison. Both assets can maintain distinct market narratives even when their prices move within the same broader crypto cycle.
A Utility-Driven View of Crypto
Garlinghouse’s comments ultimately place the discussion around cryptocurrency utility rather than maximalism. His stated willingness to remain bullish on multiple digital assets suggests that he does not view XRP’s potential as dependent on Solana losing market relevance.
For XRP, the key question remains how effectively the asset can support real-world payment and settlement activity alongside other forms of liquidity. For Solana, its broader blockchain ecosystem provides a different basis for demand and network activity.
The distinction also matters for Ripple’s business model. The company’s current products increasingly combine XRP Ledger infrastructure, XRP, stablecoins, and fiat payment rails rather than relying on a single digital asset for every transaction. Ripple’s documentation explicitly distinguishes XRP as a bridge asset from RLUSD, whose dollar peg is intended to provide stability for payment and settlement use cases.
As the crypto industry enters the next several years, Garlinghouse’s comments point toward a market in which multiple networks and digital assets can coexist. XRP’s cross-border payment role, Solana’s broader blockchain activity, and the expanding use of stablecoins represent different parts of an increasingly diverse digital-asset ecosystem.
For XRP and Solana, the longer-term trajectory will depend on adoption, liquidity, network activity, and the ability of each ecosystem to support practical applications. Garlinghouse’s remarks suggest that these factors matter more than treating the two assets as mutually exclusive choices.
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