After years of being critical of meme coins, Garlinghouse took a more measured approach this time, saying that they aren't going anywhere, especially given the high liquidity of Dogecoin.

"It's part of the ecosystem. It plays a role," Garlinghouse said. But his core view hasn't changed much, especially when it comes to long-term value.

"I've never purchased a meme coin, ever. There are still scams, rug pulls, and hype coins out there with no real users or products," he said.

Garlinghouse also warned that the fallout from meme coins has made it harder for serious projects to be taken seriously.

"Elon brought a lot of capital to the ecosystem with Dogecoin, but I think we're seeing the downsides of that move as well," he said.

The threat of scams was a running theme at Apex 2025, especially in light of the recent collapse of FTX and the fallout from Sam Bankman-Fried's alleged crimes.

"We're entering a new era of financial integration, but we need to be mindful of the scams and opportunistic actors who could set back this progress," Garlinghouse said.

"There are still plenty of scams out there, and we saw that last year with FTX. But we're also seeing a genuine shift in attitude from institutions and governments."

Garlinghouse said that he remains "bullish on stablecoins" and sees Tether and USDC as the clear front-runners in this space.

"This use case will be more important," Garlinghouse added, noting that about 20% of USDC's distribution happens on the XRP Ledger.

He also pointed to the success of Circle's recent IPO as a sign of where the market is headed.

"Circle's IPOs clearly went very well. That's a reflection of investor interest in crypto, both institutions and retail."

Garlinghouse believes that the U.S. is finally turning a corner on crypto regulation, especially with the GENIUS Act expected to pass the Senate soon.

"Regulatory headwinds have now become tailwinds in the U.S., and that's good for the global landscape," Garlinghouse said.

Other countries, including Hong Kong and South Korea, are also rolling out their own stablecoin frameworks this year, which could help to shift the narrative away from speculation and towards more sustainable use cases for crypto.

"This global shift could make regulated crypto adoption more realistic in the near term."

Beyond the talk of memes and stablecoins, the bigger picture at Apex 2025 was Ripple's focus on shifting the narrative around XRP from a speculative asset to infrastructure for cross-border finance.

As banks and governments continue to explore blockchain use cases and experiment with tokenized assets, Ripple is laying the groundwork for XRP to play a key role in this emerging landscape.

But as this institutional push continues, it's crucial to stay vigilant against scams and opportunistic actors who could threaten the progress that has been made.