Voice of Technology: Ripple CEO Talks Crypto Market, OpenAI Discusses Advertising Strategies

【Ripple: Bullish on the 2026 Crypto Market】

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse stated that he believes the cryptocurrency market will hit a new all-time high in 2026.

In an interview with CNBC on Wednesday, Garlinghouse said, “I am very optimistic about the market. Yes, I officially state that I believe we will see a new all-time high.” Ripple is the fintech company behind the cryptocurrency XRP and the stablecoin RLUSD.

【OpenAI: Defending the ChatGPT Advertising Plan】

OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar defended the company’s plan to insert ads into ChatGPT responses for some free US users.

During a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Friar said that OpenAI needs to build a “robust business model” to bring artificial general intelligence (AGI) to more people. According to Bloomberg, she said at the event on Wednesday, “Our mission is to benefit humanity with AGI, not just those who can pay.”

Friar also responded to comments made the previous day by the CEO of Google DeepMind, who expressed surprise at OpenAI’s early introduction of ads.

“‘Premature’ is a strange word,” Friar said. “In an advertising model, you need scale. An advertising model without scale doesn’t work; that’s premature. When you have 800 million weekly active users (WAU), you are far beyond many companies that are just starting to try this model.”

Google DeepMind is a subsidiary of Alphabet (GOOGL). OpenAI was co-founded by Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, and others, with Microsoft (MSFT) being its major investor.