Ripple is broadening its stablecoin payments offering for banks and fintechs to cut the need to park funds overseas and accelerate cross-border transfers. The company upgraded Ripple Payments — its global platform that links financial institutions to blockchain settlement rails — to support a wider stablecoin workflow covering collection, custody, conversion and payout, the San Francisco firm announced Tuesday.
The enhancement is intended to compete more directly with legacy payment providers by reducing reliance on pre-funded accounts and correspondent banking networks, which can lock up capital and slow international transactions. Ripple is privately valued at about $17.7 billion, according to pre-IPO shares platform Forge Global.
Ripple Payments is live in more than 60 markets and has processed over $100 billion in transaction volume. The company highlighted participants such as Switzerland’s AMINA Bank, Brazil’s Banco Genial, Malaysia’s ECIB and the Philippines’ AltPayNet.
The expansion builds on Ripple’s acquisitions of custody and treasury automation firm Palisade and Rail, a platform for holding and exchanging fiat and stablecoins. Ripple acquired Rail last August for $200 million.
Ripple is also deepening its institutional push around its dollar-pegged stablecoin, Ripple USD (RLUSD). RLUSD’s circulating supply is roughly $1.5 billion, a modest but growing share of the global stablecoin market.
Regulatory momentum has accompanied that growth. In December, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency conditionally approved national trust bank charters for Ripple’s planned Ripple National Trust Bank and for other crypto firms including Circle, BitGo, Paxos Trust Company and Fidelity Digital Assets. If finalized, these charters would let firms manage assets and stablecoin reserves under federal oversight, though they would not permit deposit-taking or lending like traditional banks.
The expansion also occurs amid talks in Washington over a U.S. crypto market structure bill that would shape stablecoin regulation. Ripple’s chief legal officer, Stuart Alderoty, participated in a February White House meeting with crypto and banking representatives to discuss the bill’s stablecoin provisions, underlining Ripple’s role in the regulatory dialogue.
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