Brummer added that Garlinghouse “wished the company well” but viewed Circle’s business as outside Ripple’s current plans.
Reports surfaced on April 30 that Ripple had offered between $4 billion and $5 billion for Circle, citing unnamed sources who said Circle rejected the price as too low and left open the possibility of future talks.
Circle has been preparing for an initial public offering since filing registration documents with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on April 1, and its leadership has not commented publicly on valuation or timing.
Garlinghouse’s statement in Las Vegas is the first direct rebuttal from Ripple’s senior management to the takeover rumor.
He framed RLUSD and the firm’s recent acquisition of prime-brokerage platform Hidden Road as steps toward building market infrastructure that links traditional finance with tokenized assets.
Garlinghouse also recounted past meetings with the SEC, describing differences in staff engagement during the agency’s long-running litigation against Ripple.
Brummer wrote that the comments highlighted the personal stakes involved in regulatory battles and the hybrid future Ripple envisions, where tokenized assets, stablecoins, and banks operate on interconnected rails.
