Ripple announced on Nov. 1, 2016, that Chris Larsen would move from chief executive officer to executive chairman. Brad Garlinghouse, the company's president and chief operating officer, took the CEO title effective Jan. 1, 20171. Larsen had raised more than $93 million for Ripple across three funding rounds. He built a team of 135 people in five offices.
Two of Ripple's 12 leadership moves on the record came in 2016
Leadership moves CryptoLately has verified at Ripple, by year
- 2016: 2
- 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 2 |
| 2017 | 0 |
| 2018 | 0 |
| 2019 | 2 |
| 2020 | 1 |
| 2021 | 2 |
| 2022 | 1 |
| 2023 | 2 |
Two CEO appointments on the record in 2016
CEO appointments CryptoLately has verified, by year
- 2016: 2
- 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 2 |
| 2017 | 3 |
| 2018 | 4 |
| 2019 | 8 |
| 2020 | 7 |
| 2021 | 6 |
| 2022 | 18 |
| 2023 | 17 |
The handoff
Ripple's press release framed the change as a response to growth. Dozens of banks had taken up Ripple's products. XRP's average daily trade volume had grown more than fourfold, and the company had closed a $55 million Series B round1. “I'm honored to step into the role of CEO of Ripple and am grateful to work so closely with a visionary like Chris,” Garlinghouse said. “I could not have asked for a more talented, driven and creative group of people here at Ripple to work with side by side every day.”
Larsen kept his equity position. He stayed on as "the controlling shareholder of the company" once he moved to the board, where his new job covered "strategic oversight of the business and identifying strategic partnership opportunities," Ripple's release said1. TechCrunch reported on Nov. 1, 2016 that Larsen had run Ripple for around four years and had grown the company "through around $94 million in financing"2. Larsen told TechCrunch the shift tracked a change across the whole industry. “We've definitely transitioned as an industry from, ok, super. interesting technology, where does it fit, I'll throw out a bunch of ideas,” he said. “It's moved from that, and found actual places where it's solving real world problems.”
Garlinghouse's record at Ripple
Garlinghouse joined Ripple in April 2015 as president and chief operating officer. In that job, he built out the company's structure for a global enterprise software business. He oversaw more than 3.5 times growth in customer adoption, Ripple's announcement said1. Before Ripple, he had run Hightail as CEO and doubled the company's revenue, and he held senior roles at Yahoo and AOL earlier still, TechCrunch reported2. Garlinghouse told TechCrunch his view of Ripple's purpose centered on one idea: linking separate payment networks. "I need interoperability on the same ledger," he said. “We want to enable interoperability from across networks, then your bank to my bank, or Visa to Alipay.”
What came next
Garlinghouse still carried the chief executive title on June 26, 2026, when CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" introduced him as Ripple's CEO for an interview on bitcoin's 2026 trading, nearly ten years after Larsen passed him the job on Nov. 1, 201631. The same CNBC segment put him in that chair discussing Strategy's bitcoin buying, a role Ripple's 2016 announcement had assigned to the president who built the company's enterprise software business, rather than to Larsen, who had moved to executive chairman.
Sources
- Team Ripple, "Amid High Growth, Ripple's Chris Larsen Appoints Brad Garlinghouse Chief Executive Officer," Ripple, Nov. 1, 2016, https://ripple.com/ripple-press/amid-high-growth-ripples-chris-larsen-appoints-brad-garlinghouse-chief-executive-officer/
- Matthew Lynley, "Brad Garlinghouse takes over as CEO of payments startup Ripple," TechCrunch, Nov. 1, 2016, https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/01/brad-garlinghouse-takes-over-as-ceo-of-payments-startup-ripple/
- CNBC, "Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse says he's 'bullish' on bitcoin," CNBC, June 26, 2026, https://www.cnbc.com/video/2026/06/26/ripple-ceo-brad-garlinghouse-says-hes-bullish-on-bitcoin.html