Ripple CEO Praises Mastercard Deal as Industry Copies the XRP Vision It Once Mocked

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has endorsed Flare founder Hugo Philion’s claim that the crypto industry now copies the institutional vision it once mocked as a banker coin.

The exchange landed as Mastercard named Ripple among more than 30 partners in its new Agent Pay for Machines service, fueling celebration across the XRP community.

From Banker Coin Mockery to Industry Blueprint

Philion argued in a widely shared post that Ripple and XRP were ridiculed in their early days. Skeptics dismissed the token as a centralized banker coin built for traditional finance.

According to the Flare founder, the project was simply too early. Much of the industry now pursues the same institutional relationships it once derided. Garlinghouse amplified the remark on X on June 10, endorsing the assessment.

Holders treated the moment as validation. Many recalled the CEO’s viral 2024 meme of a chimp holding a sign reading “Laugh now, but one day XRP will power the world.”

For whatever reasons, I’ve been hanging on to this one for a while…Prob my all time favorite from the XRP community. It’s been hanging on a wall in my house… but with all this momentum in the market, I wanted to share it!! pic.twitter.com/L7c861JEJZ

— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) May 24, 2024

However, the vindication has yet to reach the chart. XRP (XRP) trades near $1.11, down roughly 6% over the past week, even as network activity suggests growing usage.

Despite the pullback, the token holds a market cap of nearly $69 billion. That keeps it sixth among all crypto assets.

Mastercard Deal Strengthens Ripple’s Institutional Case

The timing reinforced Philion’s point. On June 10, Mastercard launched Agent Pay for Machines, a service for permissioned, machine-speed payments between AI agents. Settlement will span cards, accounts, and stablecoins.

The service credentials every agent, enforces programmatic spending limits, and handles transactions worth fractions of a cent. Mastercard chief product officer Jorn Lambert said machine payments could run at far higher volumes and far smaller values than today’s systems.

As AI agents begin transacting on behalf of businesses, payments need more than speed. They need trust, controls, and clear rules for how value moves.We're helping build the infrastructure for trusted agent-driven payments, with the XRP Ledger and $RLUSD helping lay the… https://t.co/VyrC5a8e2e pic.twitter.com/OyF5vQIDYZ

— Ripple (@Ripple) June 10, 2026

Ripple joined the initial partner group alongside Coinbase, Stripe, and the Solana Foundation.

“We’re helping build the infrastructure for trusted agent-driven payments, with the XRP Ledger and $RLUSD helping lay the foundation for the future of commerce.”

Autonomous AI agent payments already settle natively on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) using XRP and Ripple USD (RLUSD). Meanwhile, analysts expect stablecoin payment volumes to climb sharply over the next decade, and Mastercard continues to expand its crypto team.

Whether the banker coin label becomes a lasting advantage now depends on execution. The next quarters of agent-driven settlement data should reveal how much of the copied vision converts into real XRPL volume.