Ripple's Brad Garlinghouse Claps Back After Avalanche's Emin Gün Sirer Tries to Pull One Over on April Fools

Brad Garlinghouse, the perpetually unbothered CEO of Ripple, has apparently decided that Emin Gün Sirer's April Fools' Day prank about banks choosing Avalanche over Ripple deserves a response. Sirer, Avalanche's chief blockchain visionary, recently suggested that financial institutions are flocking to Avalanche's technology—then, in a classic gotcha move, clarified it was all just a bit of holiday tomfoolery. Garlinghouse, however, wasn't laughing.

Taking to X with the energy of someone who's been waiting all year for this moment, Garlinghouse dropped what might be the most devastating roast in crypto: "Excited to know Ripple lives rent-free in his head." For those unfamiliar with internet parlance, "living rent-free" refers to occupying someone's thoughts so completely that they expend energy thinking about you without you lifting a finger. In other words, Garlinghouse implied that Sirer spends his days obsessing over Ripple while pretending to be above the fray.

Sirer's original post came across as a cheeky jab at Ripple's banking relationships—suggesting, tongue firmly in cheek, that institutions had chosen Avalanche instead. He was quick to add the "jk lol" disclaimer, insisting the whole thing was an April Fools gag and that, in reality, banks are actually adopting Avalanche at breakneck speed.

Here's the delicious irony though—both narratives hold water. It's not either/or; it's actually both, which is somehow the most boring outcome in what should be a dramatic blockchain showdown.

On one side, Avalanche's enterprise subnets have attracted serious attention from TradFi heavyweights. These specialized blockchain environments let institutions run their own dedicated infrastructure for token