Key facts
- Actor Matt Damon will speak at Ripple Swell 2026.
- Damon will discuss Water.org's use of Ripple Payments and RLUSD for cross-border payments.
- Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and CTO Emeritus David Schwartz will also speak.
- The event will cover topics like agentic finance, tokenization, and DeFi.
- XRP's price fell 3% to $1.17 in the last 24 hours.
Hollywood actor and philanthropist Matt Damon is set to speak at Ripple Swell 2026, an event that is anticipated to be the largest to date. He will join Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and CTO Emeritus David Schwartz on the speaker roster. The conference will delve into topics such as agentic finance, traditional finance adoption, tokenization, cross-border payments, decentralized finance (DeFi), and the utility of the XRP Ledger.
Damon, who co-founded the nonprofit Water.org, will share insights into how the organization leverages Ripple Payments and the RLUSD stablecoin to expedite cross-border payments for clean water initiatives. Water.org has a significant track record, having mobilized $7.7 billion and positively impacted 88 million lives across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Ripple's recent involvement in the “Get Blue” campaign to combat the global water crisis further underscores this collaboration.
David Schwartz, Ripple's CTO Emeritus, expressed his enthusiasm for the event, stating, “I wouldn’t miss it,” and highlighting that it will be the largest Swell gathering yet. He encouraged the community to bring forward innovative ideas, particularly concerning the use of XRP and development on the XRP Ledger, mentioning payments, tokenization, interoperability, DeFi, and AI as key areas of interest.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse is expected to address topics including cryptocurrency regulation, the company's expansion, new partnerships, and the adoption of XRP and the RLUSD stablecoin. Other confirmed speakers include Ripple President Monica Long, Bullish CEO Tom Farley, and TradeWeb CEO Billy Hult, signaling a convergence between traditional finance and the crypto space.
Despite the positive news regarding the speaker lineup, XRP experienced a price decline of 3% over the preceding 24 hours, trading at $1.17. The cryptocurrency fell from a high of $1.22 to a low of $1.16, remaining below key moving averages. Trading volume saw a 12% increase, indicating investor activity following a hawkish tone from the Federal Reserve. XRP derivatives traders on Binance exhibited risk-off behavior, while spot traders engaged in aggressive accumulation, leading to approximately $41 million in liquidations. However, recent data shows buying activity in the derivatives market over the last four hours, with XRP futures open interest on CME, Binance, and OKX rising by over 1%, 1.5%, and 4% respectively, reaching a total of $2.70 billion following the announcement of Matt Damon's participation.