Who he is
Brad Garlinghouse is an American executive with a long career in consumer technology before arriving in cryptocurrency: Senior Vice President at Yahoo! (his internal "Peanut Butter Manifesto" memo is famous), President of Consumer Applications at AOL, CEO of the file-sharing service Hightail (formerly YouSendIt). He joined Ripple in 2015 as COO and has been its CEO since 2017. Under his leadership Ripple went through the most closely watched lawsuit in the industry's history — the one brought by the SEC in December 2020 over XRP — emerging in 2025 with the case definitively closed, and transformed itself from a cross-border payments company into a group that includes custody, stablecoins and prime brokerage. He holds an economics degree from the University of Kansas and an MBA from Harvard.
Current role
CEO of Ripple (since 2017, in office). In 2025-2026 he is leading the post-lawsuit expansion phase: the launch of the RLUSD stablecoin (December 2024), the acquisition of the prime broker Hidden Road for $1.25 billion (2025, the largest in the company's history), and an application to the OCC for a charter for the Ripple National Trust Bank, which has received conditional approval; the path to full operation is still under way. He is also one of the industry's most active voices in the US debate on crypto legislation (the CLARITY Act). (Verified: September 2026)
Career path
- 1997-2009 — Yahoo! and AOL: a senior executive of the first consumer web era.
- 2012-2014 — Hightail: CEO of the file-sharing service.
- 2015-present — Ripple: first COO, then CEO from 2017; under his leadership came the SEC lawsuit, the partial victory of 2023 and the 2024-2026 expansion.
Recent developments and controversies
- SEC lawsuit (2020-2025): the SEC accused Ripple, Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen of selling unregistered securities through XRP. In July 2023 Judge Torres ruled that programmatic sales of XRP were not securities; the personal charges against Garlinghouse and Larsen were dropped in 2023. Final outcome: a $125 million civil penalty against the company (August 2024) and definitive closure of the case with both sides jointly dropping their appeals in August 2025. (Verified: September 2026)
- 2024-2026 expansion: RLUSD, Hidden Road, and the OCC's conditional approval for a national trust bank — a step that would place Ripple under US federal banking supervision. (Verified: September 2026)
FAQ
Is Brad Garlinghouse still Ripple's CEO? Yes, he has been since 2017 and remains in office. (Verified: September 2026)
How did the SEC lawsuit against Ripple and Garlinghouse end? The personal charges against Garlinghouse were dropped in 2023; the company paid a $125 million civil penalty and in August 2025 both parties dropped their appeals, definitively closing the case.
See also
Verified sources
- https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/03/19/xrp-zooms-10-higher-as-garlinghouse-says-sec-i
- https://www.bankingdive.com/news/sec-drop-ripple-case-xrp-lawsuit-125-million-penalty-garl
- https://ripple.com/ripple-press/ripple-secures-federal-approval-to-establish-national-trus
- https://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/news-releases/2025/nr-occ-2025-125.html
