Report: Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse Hints at Future Mergers and Acquisitions

While visiting the World Economic Forum (WEF) event in Davos, Ripple Labs CEO, Brad Garlinghouse discussed the firm’s growth opportunities and despite the crypto economy’s downturn, Garlinghouse spoke about future mergers and acquisitions.

‘I Think We’re More Likely to Be the Buyer,’ Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse Said During an Interview in Davos

Just recently, during the WEF conference in Davos, Ripple Labs executive Brad Garlinghouse told CNBC in an interview that Ripple Labs has “a very strong balance sheet.” Garlinghouse spoke about Ripple Labs possibly participating in merger and acquisition (M&A) deals and Ripple Labs will be the buyer. “We’re now at a stage of growth where I think we’re more likely to be the buyer versus the … seller,” Garlinghouse told the CNBC author Arjun Kharpal. Garlinghouse further noted that he expects to see an increase in M&A in the blockchain industry.

“I think there’ll be an uptick in M&A in the blockchain and crypto space,” Garlinghouse explained during his interview. “We haven’t seen that yet. But I think that’s likely in the future. And I certainly think as that unfolds, we would consider things like that.”

There has been a number of acquisitions in the crypto space during the latter half of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022. For instance, Coinbase acquired the firm Fairx Exchange in January 2022, and Opensea acquired Dharma Labs that month as well. In February, the ethereum software company Consensys announced the acquisition of the Mycrypto wallet. The following month in March, the fractional investing company Public announced the acquisition of the digital collectibles and non-fungible token (NFT) technology startup Otis.

In April, the payments and checkout and shopper network, Bolt, acquired Wyre for $1.5 billion. Moreover, at the end of May, Huobi Global revealed it acquired the Latin American crypto exchange Bitex. The Ripple Labs CEO’s statements in Davos also follow the billionaire and FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried talking about spending billions on M&A deals. Garlinghouse explained in Davos that “there’s a lot of room for growth in crypto, and we’re looking at a lot of different niches for it.”

Meanwhile, the crypto asset xrp (XRP) is the sixth-largest market capitalization among more than 13,400 crypto assets in existence today. Year-to-date, however, XRP has lost 59.2% against the U.S. dollar and 34% was lost during the past 30 days. XRP also did not see an all-time high (ATH) seven months ago as many other digital assets did back in November 2021. XRP’s last recorded ATH was over four years ago on January 7, 2018, following the 2017 crypto bull run. XRP is down more than 88% since that ATH and its market valuation represents 1.49% of the entire crypto economy’s $1.28 trillion in value.