David Schwartz, one of the original architects of the XRP Ledger (XRPL) and Ripple's CTO Emeritus, has shared an exciting update from New York City as the company prepares to kick off its highly anticipated Swell 2026 conference.
Taking to X, the prominent cryptocurrency developer, widely known as JoelKatz, posted a photograph from a Ripple-hosted gathering with a brief but enthusiastic message.
"And so it begins!" Schwartz wrote.
The photograph shows attendees gathered in a conference room, with several large displays featuring the words "Swell Demo Day."
The post comes just one day before Ripple's flagship Swell conference officially begins in New York City on Oct. 27.
Ripple kicks off Swell festivities
Schwartz's latest message appears to mark the beginning of Swell-related activities, with the company hosting a special Demo Day at its New York office on Oct. 26.
The event gives 12 selected startups an opportunity to showcase their projects, with each team receiving approximately three minutes to present its ideas.
The participating companies represent various areas of the cryptocurrency industry, including tokenization, decentralized finance, stablecoin payments and blockchain-based lending.
Among the featured startups are BlockVault, which is developing financial infrastructure for XRP holders, and RiskX, which focuses on structured yield strategies involving XRP and Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin.
The gathering also includes presentations from projects focused on tokenized gold, cross-border payments and institutional DeFi.
The Demo Day serves as a prelude to Ripple's much larger Swell 2026 conference, which will take place from Oct. 27 to 29 at The Shed in Manhattan.
This year's Swell is particularly significant because Ripple is combining its flagship conference with Apex, its XRP Ledger-focused developer gathering, and UBRI Connect, which brings together researchers from its academic network.
Ripple expects more than 1,500 attendees, over 100 speakers and upwards of 80 sessions across three stages.
The speaker lineup also includes Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, Bullish CEO Tom Farley and actor Matt Damon, co-founder of Water.org.
Arman Shirinyan
Dan Burgin
