Key Takeaways
- Swell runs Oct. 27-29 at The Shed in Manhattan.
- More than 1,500 attendees are expected across three stages.
- Over 100 speakers will address markets, payments, and technology.
Swell Combines Finance, Development, and Research
Swell opens Oct. 27 at The Shed in Manhattan, where more than 80 sessions will span digital finance and blockchain development through Oct. 29. Ripple, the blockchain payments company hosting Swell, has now released the event’s full agenda.
For the first time, Swell will combine with Apex and UBRI Connect. Apex is a summit for developers, institutions, and investors building on the XRP Ledger. UBRI Connect is an academic conference for participants in Ripple’s University Blockchain Research Initiative.
Programming follows three tracks: Institutional, Ecosystem, and Innovation, as outlined in Ripple’s conference lineup announcement. The company stated:
“Swell has historically been where Ripple makes its most significant product and partnership announcements.”
Bank Executives and XRP Developers Take the Stage
Executives including Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, CME Group CEO Terrence Duffy, and Bullish CEO Tom Farley appear on the published Swell agenda with discussions spanning digital asset markets and financial infrastructure. Matt Damon and Gary White, co-founders of Water.org, will also speak. Tokenization sessions will examine how assets can be represented on a blockchain.
David Schwartz, Ripple’s chief technology officer emeritus, and Ayo Akinyele, senior director of engineering at RippleX, will discuss the XRP Ledger’s future. RippleX is Ripple’s team supporting development on the network. Other technical sessions cover security, privacy, and formal verification, a mathematical method for checking software behavior.
Stablecoins, digital assets designed to track a reference value, feature in discussions about payments and institutional finance. Sessions will compare individual issuers with consortium models and explore applications involving Ripple USD, or RLUSD.
RLUSD Custody Connects Banks With Blockchain Markets
Ahead of those discussions, eligible institutions can safeguard RLUSD issued on the XRP Ledger through Standard Chartered’s RLUSD custody service, launched Oct. 12. The service operates through the bank’s branch in the Dubai International Financial Centre, a financial hub in the United Arab Emirates.
Licensing requirements influence how institutions assess stablecoins for payments, settlement, and corporate fund management. Ripple outlined differences in stablecoin oversight in September, explaining how reserve, capital, and supervisory obligations affect token backing and holder protections.
Under a planned collateral arrangement with LMAX Group, an institutional trading venue operator, eligible RLUSD holdings would support trading while remaining in Standard Chartered’s custody. Their value would be reflected at LMAX without transferring the tokens there. Standard Chartered noted that the agreed capabilities depend on documentation, testing, applicable laws and regulations, internal approvals, and jurisdictional readiness.
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