Ripple's Swell conference opens Oct. 27 at The Shed in Manhattan, integrating its developer summit, Apex conference, and UBRI Connect academic event into a single program running through Oct. 29. Over 80 sessions will connect financial institutions with XRP Ledger developers and researchers across three specialized tracks: Institutional, Ecosystem, and Innovation.
Ripple has historically used Swell to announce product updates and partnerships. This year's agenda spans digital asset markets, stablecoins, and blockchain infrastructure, with speakers including Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, CME Group CEO Terrence Duffy, Bullish CEO Tom Farley, and Water.org co-founders Matt Damon and Gary White.
Technical sessions will cover the XRP Ledger's future, security protocols, privacy measures, and formal verification—a mathematical method for checking software behavior. Speakers include David Schwartz, Ripple's chief technology officer emeritus, and Ayo Akinyele, senior director of engineering at RippleX, the team supporting network development.
Stablecoins are a central conference theme. Sessions will compare individual issuer models with consortium approaches and explore applications for Ripple USD, or RLUSD, which maintains a stable value against a reference asset.
Standard Chartered launched an RLUSD custody service on Oct. 12 through its Dubai International Financial Centre branch, allowing eligible institutions to safeguard RLUSD issued on the XRP Ledger. Ripple previously clarified how reserve, capital, and supervisory obligations impact token backing and holder protections—requirements that directly influence institutional evaluation of stablecoins for payments, settlement, and corporate fund management.
Under a planned arrangement with LMAX Group, an institutional trading venue operator, eligible RLUSD holdings could support trading while remaining in Standard Chartered's custody, with value reflected at LMAX. Standard Chartered noted these capabilities are contingent on further documentation, testing, and applicability.
