According to U.Today, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has extended a warm welcome to Jack McDonald, the CEO of Standard Custody, who has recently joined Ripple as the Senior Vice President (SVP) of stablecoins. Garlinghouse expressed his excitement about having McDonald, who is not new to the XRPL ecosystem, on his team. McDonald brings with him over three decades of experience in the financial sector, having served as the managing director of UBS Investment Bank in 2000 and later as the president and CEO of Conifer Financial Services in 2014.
McDonald is also the head of PolySign, a fintech firm founded by Ripple's Arthur Britto and David Schwartz. Standard Custody, a digital asset custodian, operates as a subsidiary of PolySign. Ripple had announced its intention to acquire Standard Custody in February as part of its strategy to expand its portfolio of regulatory licenses. This move followed Ripple's acquisition of Metaco, a Switzerland-based cryptocurrency custody firm, for $250 million less than a year prior.
In addition to these developments, Ripple has also revealed plans to venture into the saturated stablecoin market with its own dollar-backed cryptocurrency. This cryptocurrency is expected to initially run on the XRP Ledger and Ethereum. Ripple President Monica Long has predicted that the stablecoin project will be operational within the year.
Ripple has confirmed the completion of the Standard Custody deal in a recent announcement. McDonald, in his new role as SVP of stablecoins at Ripple, will continue to serve as the CEO of Standard Custody. Ripple's strong financial position could potentially enable it to continue its acquisition spree, as suggested in a recent blog post.