Garinghouse of Ripple recently said something interesting at an event in Sydney. Regarding XRP adoption, he explained that it isn’t a dramatic, one-time moment like everyone might imagine—it’s actually a process of flipping thousands of small switches one after another.

This was his commentary at the XRP Australia Sydney 2026 conference held at Crown Towers at the end of last month. Based on what he said, it becomes clear that Ripple’s strategy is quite realistic. There is no single master-trigger event. Instead, hundreds—or even thousands—of incremental advances are stacking up.

What’s interesting is that while each step on its own may seem insignificant, as they add up over time, they ultimately create a much bigger impact. Garinghouse shared a bullish outlook for after 2026, saying that the steady efforts made over the past 10 years are gradually starting to bear fruit.

In fact, Ripple has actively pursued acquisitions and partnerships in these past few years. Just since 2023, it has spent more than $3 billion on acquisitions, and the purpose, he said, is to bridge TradFi and DeFi. In other words, penetration into the financial system is advancing with certainty.

By the way, this XRP Australia Sydney 2026 event also had Ripple’s President, Monica Long, and the Honorary CTO, David Schwartz. The event was large enough to attract more than 400 international attendees, which also suggests how high the industry’s interest is.

Another interesting point was how the phrase “switching on” spread. It originally began in January 2019, when Garinghouse—during an interview with Fortune—described that banks are ready to move XRP integration from the testing stage via xRapid to full deployment. After that, YouTube creators and social media users started using the phrase, and it became a symbol of the community’s expectation for one big price surge.

But what Garinghouse emphasized this time was that while that expectation isn’t basically wrong, the way it will happen is different from what everyone imagines. It isn’t a dramatic single moment—it's the accumulation of steady efforts over several years that, once you notice it, changes the bigger picture.

One more interesting thing he mentioned was the role of the community. Seeing the enthusiasm of supporters in various places—including Australia—during the world tour, he said that community members speaking up, correcting misinformation, and fighting FUD are driving even more switches. In other words, user-side actions are also becoming a factor that accelerates adoption.

So far, Ripple’s strategy seems to be moving forward quite steadily. It’s not flashy, but it definitely feels like they’re making reliable progress.