Reece Merrick, Ripple’s Senior Executive Officer/Managing Director for the Middle East and Africa, was a key speaker at a recent event of the Gulf Capital Market Association (formerly The Gulf Bond and Sukuk Association), which represents the bond and equity markets of the Arabian Gulf region.
In a tweet, Merrick shared a summary of the insights he shared at the event, highlighting a clear shift with institutional finance moving on-chain. He added that Ripple is uniquely positioning itself to provide the infrastructure and liquidity needed to bridge traditional finance with the future of digital assets. “The evolution is happening now,” Merrick said.
It was great to speak at the @GulfCapMarket event yesterday. The shift is clear: institutional finance is moving on-chain.
At @Ripple, we are uniquely positioned to provide the infrastructure and liquidity needed to bridge traditional finance with the future of digital assets.… pic.twitter.com/FjuqOPnIFr
— Reece Merrick (@reece_merrick) January 23, 2026
Merrick’s outlook aligns with a broader vision shared this week by Ripple President Monica Long.
According to Ripple’s president, the crypto industry is entering the production era. Long predicts the industrialization of crypto this year, as trusted infrastructure and real utility will push banks, companies and providers from pilots to scaling through stablecoins, on-chain assets, crypto custody and broader institutional investments.
This move will mark a real turning point for institutional adoption and the Internet of Value, according to Long.
What awaits us? XRP?
Ripple CEO Reece Merrick hinted at continued evolution. The core of this evolution is XRP itself, with every function that the XRP Ledger’s institutional utility, strengthening the underlying demand and use cases for the cryptocurrency.
The XRP The Ledger lending protocol is included in rippled v 3.0.0, although it is not yet up for voting.
In addition to confidentiality, there are also zero-knowledge proofs – which the XRP Ledger is currently in the process of prototyping – this would also strengthen scalability and interoperability, which could unlock wider institutional adoption in the areas of tokenization, credit and settlement.
For institutions, privacy marks the next step in making the XRPL infrastructure suitable for high-value markets.
Allowed domains, which represent a building block of compliance for institutions, have entered the majority with their activation on the mainnet, expected to take place on February 4.