Exchange Ranking
Top Exchanges
24h Volume Ranking
Popularity Ranking
Exchange BTC Balance
Proof of Reserves
Decentralized Exchanges
Funding Rate
Funding Heatmap
Liquidation Data
Max Pain
Long/Short Ratio
Whale L/S Ratio
Binance/Okex/Huobi L/S
Bitfinex Margin L/S
ETF Tracker
Solana ETF
XRP ETF
Hong Kong ETF
Bitcoin Treasuries
Crypto Reversal
Ethereum Reserves
HyperLiquid Wallet Analysis
Hyperliquid Whale Watch
Large Transactions
On-chain Movement
Bitcoin ROI
Stablecoin Market Cap
Options Analysis
News
Articles
Economic Calendar
Features
Wallet
Contract Calculator
Security
Collections
Watchlist
Following
XRP Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple Technology: The slow infrastructure of traditional finance and the future of blockchain
Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple Technology, recently used the US$11 billion gold relocation from the Dutch Central Bank to point out that the traditional financial system still relies on surprisingly inefficient infrastructure to transfer value.
Most of the gold has not actually moved
De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) recently moved about 86 tons of gold from North America to London. But according to the central bank's official announcement, most of this gold did not actually cross the Atlantic: about 59 tons of it were sold in New York and subsequently purchased again in London.
Galinghaus's point is concise: If ownership changes do not require moving the underlying asset, blockchain technology can significantly accelerate the transfer process.
The Dutch central bank said London provided it with access to the world's deepest physical gold market, making reserves easier to trade during crises. This means that rather than physically transporting all the gold, it would be more practical to sell the gold bars held in New York and buy the same amount of gold in London.
Galinghaus compared this process with Germany's previous gold repurchase program. Bundesbank took years to transport 674 tons of gold from Paris and New York back to Frankfurt, completing the project in 2017. The Bundesbank said the operation involved extensive transportation and verification efforts.
The key point is that blockchain is not designed to eliminate vaults. Physical gold still requires custody, auditing and legal ownership protection. What can really be changed is the settlement level.
Trading of tokenized gold has been implemented on XRP Ledger
This provides a direct XRPL (XRP Ledger) connection to Garlinhaus's argument. XRP Ledger already supports tokenized real-world assets, including tokens linked to gold. XRPL's tokenization framework allows issued assets to move along the chain and settlement times are measured in seconds.
The cumulative transaction volume of tokenized gold on XRP Ledger has exceeded US$1 million, providing the network with a small but realistic example of the model described by Garlinhaus. Physical gold and silver are still kept by the custodian, and their digital representation can change hands without moving the physical gold bars.
The broader ecosystem of tokenized assets on XRPL is also expanding, and tokenized gold provides the clearest reference for the Dutch central bank's operations:
Galinghouse is not advocating that XRP should replace central bank gold. His broader argument is that the transfer of ownership should not require moving the assets themselves.
The "shuffle" of $11 billion worth of gold in the Netherlands shows that traditional finance has achieved this in economic logic. Tokenization is simply an attempt to make the same process faster and more programmable.
