Today, we're announcing that SVP and General Manager Monica Long has been promoted to the role of President.
Coming off our strongest year yet, Monica Long is one of the driving forces behind why we have been as successful as we are today despite multiple crypto winters and headwinds in the industry. She joined Ripple in 2013 when the company had only 10 employees. At a time when crypto was barely a blip on the radar, she was in the trenches establishing Ripple as a responsible leader in the crypto industry—working with regulators with care and evangelizing the benefits and utility of crypto, as well as earning the trust of financial institutions globally.
“From the moment I first met Monica nearly eight years ago at Ripple, it was clear that she was a force to be reckoned with. Her deep knowledge of crypto paired with her determination, creativity and ability to think out of the box has made her one of the most respected leaders in the industry and certainly at Ripple,” says Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple CEO. “Even in the current challenging crypto environment, Monica has helped guide Ripple to a very unique place of growth and financial strength. She's been an instrumental adviser to me over the years and I'm grateful to have the opportunity to partner with her even more closely as she embarks on her role as President.”
Not too long ago, it was unheard of for enterprises and financial institutions to use crypto in their tech stack. Under Monica’s leadership, and working alongside engineering and product, her team helped launch On-Demand Liquidity (ODL), one of the industry’s first enterprise crypto solutions to use crypto for cross-border transactions and Ripple’s flagship product in 2018. Today, ODL is available in nearly 40 payout markets and last year, approximately 60% of payments over RippleNet were sent through ODL. In other words, over half of payments are now using XRP for cross-border transactions. Ripple has processed $30B worth of volume and 20M transactions since RippleNet was first launched.
“I’m incredibly honored to take on the role of President at Ripple as we expand deeper into crypto-enabled services like liquidity, settlement and custody,” says Monica Long. “Looking back over my tenure, I can say without a doubt that I’ve been lucky enough to be surrounded by some of the smartest, most innovative people in crypto and tech, as we tackled some huge audacious goals-- like being able to send money instantly for fractions of a penny around the world. The Internet of Value is a mission I believed in on day one and continue to find inspiration in for the future.”
Monica’s passion, hard work, care and successful strategic bets resulted in her promotion in August 2020 to General Manager of RippleX where she oversaw product, engineering, partnerships, marketing and developer relations, working together to support an open community of crypto developers innovating across creator economies, payments, identity, foreign exchange, digital media, gaming, central bank digital currencies and more. Under her leadership, the team launched and contributed to –along with the community– the first phase of the EVM sidechain and brought NFTs to the XRP Ledger (XRPL) under the proposed amendment, XLS-20, as well as inked key CBDC partnerships with the countries of Palau and Bhutan. In addition, they led funding for and helped launch 100+ projects through grants, accelerators, bounties, hackathons and the XRPL Zone.
In June 2022, she took on the RippleNet General Manager role, in addition to RippleX, where she was responsible for the development and growth of ODL and global customer success.
“When I think about the beginning of Ripple and where we are now – so much of that is due to Monica’s leadership and strategic insights. She joined us when crypto was unheard of, and to see her grow over the last ten years into the fantastic leader she is today, is a testament to how far the industry has come,“ said Chris Larsen, Ripple Executive Chairman and co-founder.
Monica has been recognized by San Francisco Business Times as one of the most influential women in business and payments. In addition, she was part of HSBC’s ‘Women on the Rise in FinTech’ initiative, a program aimed at celebrating gender diversity by honoring the industry’s preeminent women.
