Ava Labs CEO says banks love Ripple, then hit April Fools

From Polygon to Polymarket, the crypto community has its own way of pulling April Fool's Day statistics.

This year, Ava Labs CEO Emin Gunn Sirer couldn't help but give Ripple a friendly jab.

Banks are choosing Ripple.

April fools, obviously. They actually use Avalanche.

— Emin Gün Sirer🔺⚔️ (@el33th4xor) April 1, 2026

The post has garnered 585 likes and over 50,000 views as of reporting. His comments section exploded with hundreds of responses, many from Ripple's community who came up with a very quick bait-and-switch and stayed for the debate.

April fools for you. Ripple is the center of the entire banking system. pic.twitter.com/PbySxweFFE

— Montvella (@montvella) April 1, 2026

Some show up for the memories, because that's what the day is like.

pic.twitter.com/YEP4dX3EEj

– Boinkrupt | NT🔺 (@0xboinkrupt) April 1, 2026

April Fools rolls around once a year, but Sirer has long made Ripple a critical watch.

Not that I'm a fan of Tether, but whatever Ripple can do, Tether can do as well.

— Emin Gun Sirer🔺⚔️ (@el33th4xor) January 1, 2018

I understand how excited the markets are about XRP getting its first stablecoin. Yay for Ripple, please go this way to collect the participation trophy. Now for those of us who support a true DeFi ecosystem and have *many* stable coins on chain, the real game is about…

— Emin Gün Sirer🔺⚔️ (@el33th4xor) December 2, 2024

The two platforms

Ripple, the San Francisco-based payments firm behind the XRP token, has built its business through cross-border settlement and on-demand liquidity services.

Developed by Ava Labs, Avalanche is focused on enterprise tokenization, decentralized finance, and customizable sub-second transaction endpoints.

Both Ripple and Ava Labs are among the more than 100 crypto-native companies and financial institutions that have joined MasterCard's new Crypto Partner Program.

The initiative focuses on connecting on-chain innovation to existing payment systems, corporate and institutional use cases such as cross-border transfers, payments and settlements.

Ripple scale, avalanche speed

In the year As of March 2026, Ripple will be valued at approximately $50 billion, driven by a $750 million buyback program.

The company connects more than 300 financial institutions worldwide for cross-border payments. Notable partners include SBI Holdings, BNY Mellon, Santander, PNC Bank, and CIBC.

Meanwhile, Ava Labs, valued at $5.25 billion, is leading the Avalanche Network institutional token.

Supporting more than 4,500 TPS and sub-second completions, Avalanche sees its real-world asset (RWA) total value lock 950% to over $2 billion by 2025.

Ava Labs and Avalanche secure partnerships with top institutions in blockchain, gaming and tokenized assets. Notable partners include JPMorgan, Citi, KKR, Apollo and Amazon Web Services (AWS).

This month, Animoka Brands announced an investment in Ava Labs to drive growth in Asia and the Middle East.

Simulation performance

Like other digital assets, XRP and AVAX, Avalanche's native asset, have fallen sharply in the ongoing market downturn.

XRP fell roughly 27% in the first quarter of 2026 and was trading at $1.35 at press time, down 63% from its peak last July, according to CoinGecko.

AVAX fell 25% in Q1 and now sits above $9, down 94% from its peak during the last bull run.