Former Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan will open Ripple’s Swell 2026 conference as the headline institutional speaker, Ripple announced on September 4. Rajan is scheduled to appear during the invitation-only Institutional Summit on October 27 at The Shed in Manhattan, New York, with the broader three-day event running through October 29.
Ripple is combining Swell with its developer-focused XRPL Apex conference for the first time, connecting financial institutions with builders across the XRP Ledger ecosystem. Organizers expect more than 1,500 attendees, over 75 speakers, and more than 50 sessions across three stages. Topics include payments, digital assets, capital markets, tokenization, stablecoins, DeFi, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and XRP Ledger development.
Rajan is currently the Katherine Dusak Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He also co-leads a Federal Reserve task force reviewing the costs, benefits, and institutional consequences of the central bank’s balance sheet policy. His previous roles include RBI governor, IMF chief economist, and vice chairman of the Bank for International Settlements. Ripple has not said whether Rajan will deliver a keynote, join a panel, or discuss stablecoins or tokenized assets, and his participation does not imply endorsement of XRP or Ripple products.
The speaker lineup also features Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, President Monica Long, CTO Emeritus David Schwartz, actor and Water.org co-founder Matt Damon, Bullish CEO Tom Farley, Tradeweb CEO Billy Hult, Robinhood crypto executive Johann Kerbrat, and representatives from the XRP Ledger Foundation and XRPL Commons. The full agenda has not yet been published.
