Garlinghouse Slams DNB's Six-Month Gold Transfer: 'Outdated Process'

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has compared the Dutch central bank's recent gold transfer to instant crypto transfers. The De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) spent nearly six months moving 86 tonnes of gold reserves worth around $11 billion from New York and Ottawa to London.

The move aimed to improve crisis preparedness and increase liquidity by shifting a larger portion of gold to London, the world's key physical-gold market. Of the transferred gold, about 59 tonnes were sold in New York and repurchased in London, while the remainder was moved physically or routed via the Netherlands.

Garlinghouse contrasted this process with digital assets, highlighting that precise, near-instant transfers of value are now possible digitally, removing the need for prolonged logistics and extensive paperwork. He referenced live trials conducted by the Bank for International Settlements and cited tokenized gold, including Meld Gold's gram-backed tokens, already issued on the XRP Ledger (XRPL).

Garlinghouse acknowledged that physical gold reserves retain a critical function for central banks during crises but stressed the difference in settlement speed and flexibility between tangible assets and digital tokens. He noted that both systems can coexist, but highlighted the long duration still required for major gold transfers compared to the speed of blockchain settlement.