TL;DR:
- Ripple’s $5 million strategic stake in t54 followed a $5 million seed round; Long said trust infrastructure is essential as agents move real capital.
- t54 says AI agents conduct a large portion of financial transactions yet remain unverified and unaccountable, making a trust layer central to an agentic economy.
- Long forecast 2026 DeFi adoption for XRPL, citing Aviva Investors on chain transfers and crypto treasuries holding BTC, ETH, XRP, DOGE.
Ripple President Monica Long used X to spotlight Ripple’s $5 million strategic stake in t54 after the AI agent builder closed a $5 million seed round. She congratulated the team and argued that as software agents start moving real capital, credible trust infrastructure becomes essential. The investment positions Ripple alongside Anagram, PL Capital, and Franklin Templeton, which were named as leading backers of the round. Long added she was proud for Ripple to be at the forefront of AI innovation, framing the bet as long range infrastructure, not marketing. Posted Feb. 25, 2026, Long noted.
Excited to see t54 building the trust layer for the agentic economy. As autonomous agents begin managing and transacting with real capital, trust infrastructure becomes a foundational piece of the equation. Proud to be at the forefront of AI innovation. Congrats to the team! https://t.co/RN7JMoZG81
— Monica Long (@MonicaLongSF) February 25, 2026
Trust Infrastructure for the Agentic Economy
Under that announcement, t54’s “trust layer” ambition sits at the center of the pitch. Long amplified the company’s message that AI agents already conduct a large portion of financial transactions, yet many are “unverified and unaccountable.” The thesis is that an agentic economy cannot scale unless counterparties can verify who an agent represents and how it behaves. Long echoed the idea in plain terms: as autonomous agents begin managing and transacting with real capital, trust infrastructure becomes a foundational piece of the equation. Her post also carried a simple, operational signal: congratulations, and momentum. Today.
Long is also pairing the AI narrative with a 2026 institutional DeFi adoption callout for XRPL. She previously forecast that decentralized finance systems, especially those on the XRP Ledger, could see adoption at scale by financial institutions in 2026. She shared that view after XRP Community Day, framing it as a near term expectation rather than a distant roadmap. As a proof point, she highlighted Aviva Investors, described as a major U.K. fund manager, transferring assets on chain using XRPL. Long’s conclusion was direct: other institutions are likely to follow in 2026.
Taken together, the seed round and DeFi forecast underline Ripple’s convergence thesis for AI and on chain finance. Long’s endorsement emphasized transparency and reliability as prerequisites for autonomous agents, while the broader backdrop is that more financial institutions have been embracing DeFi. The same report adds that institutions have been forming crypto treasuries by adding cryptocurrencies such as BTC, ETH, XRP and DOGE to their balance sheets. For stakeholders tracking execution, the near term question is practical: whether t54’s trust layer can translate from concept to usable rails as capital and agents interact at scale.
