New Ripple president says her job is to continue to scale amid crypto winter

Monica Long has been named the new president of Ripple, moving up from general manager. Long joined the company in 2013 as director of communications and expanded her role last year from general manager of RippleX, the blockchain development side of the business, to general manager of the company as a whole, adding RippleNet, the company’s financial network, to her purview.

The presidency of Ripple has been a somewhat nebulous position until now, with the title being ascribed to both co-founders Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen at various times.

Long’s promotion comes at a good moment for the company. She told Cointelegraph:

“It’s a job of continuing to scale. […] We’ve weathered many [crypto] winters, and with this one, we’re coming off a record year of business and customer growth.”

In this environment, “We’re continuing to grow our team,” she added.

Over half my professional career has been in crypto – and more importantly, at @Ripple. I’m incredibly honored and ready to hit the ground running as President. Thank you @bgarlinghouse and @chrislarsensf for the opportunity of a lifetime! https://t.co/7gXZJZwLNN

— Monica Long (@MonicaLongSF) January 27, 2023

Long joined Ripple when the company had only 10 employees. She spearheaded the development of the company’s On-Demand Liquidity solution, described as “Ripple’s flagship product,” which was launched in 2018. Ripple added an adjacent service called LiquidityHub last year, and the company will continue to expand that service, Long said. Over 60% of RippleNet’s payment volume was sent through ODL last year.

On the RippleX side, Long said an automatic market maker specification would go up for a vote by the validators this year.

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Ripple is often in the news due to its ongoing court case with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC has accused Ripple and co-founders Garlinghouse and Larsen of conducting an unregistered securities offering of $1.38 billion and selling XRP (XRP) to retail investors as an unregistered security.

Garlinghouse told CNBC on Jan. 18 that the company expects a decision on the case this year.