Garlinghouse Argues Blockchain Can Speed Up Asset Transfers
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse is highlighting an $11 billion gold shuffle by De Nederlandsche Bank to illustrate how traditional finance moves value through slow infrastructure.
The bank recently relocated about 86 tonnes of gold from North America to London, but most of it never physically crossed the Atlantic: roughly 59 tonnes were sold in New York and repurchased in London, according to the central bank's official announcement.
Garlinghouse points out that if ownership can change without moving the underlying asset, blockchain could make that transfer considerably faster. He compared this process with Germany's earlier repatriation program, which took several years to move 674 tonnes of gold from Paris and New York to Frankfurt, completing the program in 2017.
The important point is not that blockchain eliminates vaults; physical gold still needs custody, audits, and legal ownership protections. What tokenization can change is the settlement layer.