Ripple’s longtime chief technologist David “JoelKatz” Schwartz has unveiled his first post-Ripple move, saying he will serve as a strategic advisor to Evernorth, an XRP-focused vehicle led by former Ripple executive Asheesh Birla. “XRP community – I promised I’d have an update on my next adventure soon right? Well here’s the start: I’ll be a strategic advisor to Evernorth, helmed by my friend Asheesh Birla,” Schwartz wrote, adding that Evernorth was founded “as a regulated, scalable investment vehicle to tap into opportunities for XRP in DeFi and capital markets, extending the entire XRP ecosystem.” He closed with: “I’m excited to get started!”
The Old Ripple Connection
Schwartz’s announcement arrived alongside Evernorth’s own reveal that it has signed a business combination agreement with Armada Acquisition Corp II to go public on Nasdaq. The combined company is “expected to trade on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol ‘XRPN,’ subject to the satisfaction of the listing requirements,” with more than $1 billion in gross proceeds targeted, including a $200 million commitment from Japan’s SBI. The release says net proceeds will primarily fund open-market XRP purchases, positioning Evernorth as “the largest public XRP treasury company.”
The Birla–Schwartz connection is longstanding. Birla joined Ripple in 2013 and rose to become General Manager of RippleNet, the company’s cross-border payments business, before moving to the company’s board in 2022. On the day he stepped back from his “day job”, Birla wrote: “After ~9 amazing years I’ve decided to wrap up my day job at Ripple. Luckily, I’m not going far as I join the Board of Directors.” In announcing Evernorth this week, Birla said he will step down from Ripple’s board to lead the new venture.
Schwartz’s advisory role at Evernorth intersects with his own transition out of Ripple’s C-suite. Earlier this month, he disclosed that he will step down as Ripple’s Chief Technology Officer at year-end after more than a decade in the role, moving to Ripple’s board and remaining active in the XRP Ledger community. He revealed that he wants to spend more time with family while “not going away from the XRP community.”
Evernorth’s capital-markets blueprint is expansive. The company plans to use its war chest to accumulate XRP and to “actively grow XRP per share over time” by lending to institutions, providing market liquidity and deploying capital into XRP-based DeFi strategies.
The press release outlines complementary ecosystem initiatives—running XRPL validators, using Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin as an on-ramp to XRP DeFi, and supporting projects across payments, capital markets and tokenized assets—framing Evernorth as both a treasury vehicle and a development catalyst. The company says Ripple will participate as a strategic investor, and that Ripple executives Brad Garlinghouse, Stuart Alderoty and David Schwartz are expected to serve as strategic advisors while Evernorth maintains independent governance.
For XRP’s institutional storyline, the architecture matters. By targeting an exchange listing under “XRPN” and explicitly eschewing a passive ETF wrapper, Evernorth positions itself as an active, yield-generating public company with a balance sheet anchored in XRP. If the deal secures shareholder and regulatory approvals, the parties are aiming to close in the first quarter of 2026, converting non-redeemed AACI Class A shares one-for-one into Evernorth shares at closing.
Schwartz’s phrasing—“here’s the start”—reads like a deliberate tell that his Evernorth role is only the first of multiple XRP-aligned ventures he plans to take on following his CTO transition. He has already confirmed he will remain engaged with XRPL and Ripple at the board level; today’s advisory post adds a capital-markets dimension to that presence.
At press time, XRP traded at $2.42.
