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RippleNet Expands Access to Cross-Border Payments in the Asian Market with Thai FinTech Partnership

A Thai FinTech startup, DeeMoney, specializing in remittances and cross-border payments for users, has partnered with RippleNet for global payment. Bangkok-headquartered DeeMoney has joined hands with RippleNet to enable it to process faster and cheaper money transfers to its customers.

New Partnership to Support Fast Cross-Border Payments

Through RippleNet, an enterprise blockchain-based payment solution provider, which already has attracted over 300 financial institutions across the world payments network, DeeMoney is offering more efficient international money transfers at the best rates and lowest fees. DeeMoney is the first non-bank institution in Thailand to make use of Ripple’s blockchain-based solutions.

The competition to offer cross-border payments has driven non-banks and banks to introduce faster and lower-cost international transfer channels for workers. Via RippleNet ,the Thai FinTech Start-up can process inbound payments into Thailand from various nations, including Indonesia, Middle East and Gulf regions, Israel, South Korea, and Singapore. It is currently estimated that there are about a million Thai nationals working globally who are transferring money back home. The company plans in the near future to leverage RippleNet for outbound transfers from Thailand to other countries.

Marcus Treacher, Senior Vice President of customer success at Ripple, stated that the digital banking revolution is a significant trend taking Thailand by storm and recognized DeeMoney as a major player in this revolution. He elaborated that by using RippleNet payment solutions, DeeMoney redefines the rules and boundaries of engagements by offering efficient international transfers at low transaction fees.

Ripple Keen on Global Expansion

Ripple, the California-headquartered firm, is aggressively focused on its global expansion in the Asian market by making major moves along remittance corridors in Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and the Philippines.

Ripple partnered with Azimo, London-based remittance service, to provide cheaper and faster payment in the Philippines. Furthermore, Ripple joined hands with three remittance firms (WireBarey, Hanpass, and Sentbe) in South Korea to process money transfer real fast in the neighboring countries. Ripple also entered Japan and Vietnam markets to make efficient cross-border money transfer to clients.

The recent partnership with DeeMoney enables Ripple to continue positioning itself as a leader in cross-border crypto payments. The new development aims to support payments in the Asian market as both Ripple and DeeMoney focus on building capacity and ensuring that they expand their presence.

Image via Shutterstock

Ripple (XRP) Price to Skyrocket and “Completely Annihilate” Every Other Altcoin, says Analyst

The demand for Ripple’s cryptocurrency, XRP is set to skyrocket as the US regulations around cryptocurrencies are clarified. Ripple currently relies on the power of the ISO20022 standardization within RippleNet.

Ripple is currently the second-largest fintech firm in the US, behind Stripe, which is valued at $35 billion. Ripple is ahead of Coinbase in terms of valuation, which is valued at $8.1 billion and stands in third place. The growth of Ripple has been due to the entrance in the market of the international transaction infrastructure, especially the global remittance market.

XRP is currently held by Ripple and is locked in escrow, where one billion XRP is released to Ripple each month. This has been part of Ripple’s strategy that began in 2017 when the company decided it would not sell its XRP all at once.

According to a well-known crypto analyst, the price development of XRP is extremely bullish, given that it is the only project that is relentlessly pursuing the regulation of cryptocurrencies. XRP may potentially benefit massively once a legal framework for cryptocurrencies has been set in place in the United States. The analyst said:

“The only project in the entire market that is pushing for Crypto Regulations is $XRP. They know that once these regulations are added, it will completely annihilate almost every other altcoin, and make XRP’s demand skyrocket.”

Ripple’s XRP cryptocurrency has been continuously criticized by the crypto community for being “too centralized,” as Ripple holds too large of a share of XRP. Jed McCaleb, Ripple’s co-founder has sold 1 billion XRP, however, he still controls around 5 percent of the altcoin’s supply. Many have referred to Ripple to a PayPal account than to a cryptocurrency system like Bitcoin. The analyst added:

“Many criticize XRP for being “too centralized”, although this transparency is what governments like. While other projects are focused on getting a quick batch of new investors to exit scam, Ripple has quietly been working with government agencies to ensure compliance.”

Ripple has previously criticized Bitcoin’s consensus mechanism, proof-of-work (PoW), which has a major downside of contributing to the vast amounts of energy consumed for validating blocks on its network.

Ripple still lacks adoption

Recently, Spanish bank Santander has been hesitant to adopt the XRP crypto on its international payment network due to the low adoption of the cryptocurrency.

The Spanish banking giant has expressed concern about Ripple’s token, XRP, and its low usage saying the XRP token “was not actively traded in enough markets” to support the firm’s requirements for its innovative One Pay FX payments network.

What is Ripple (XRP)?

Founded by RippleLab’s Chris Larsen and Jed McCaleb and released in 2012, Ripple is a global payment system that aims to replace the SWIFT system of cross-border payments with their open-source distributed ledger technology, the Ripple Transaction Protocol (RTXP).

The purpose of Ripple is to create an “Internet of Value” through a digital platform that transfers and exchanges value, in the form of tokens, across the world in the same fashion that the internet allows for the near-instant transfer of information.

Ripple mainly targets the banking industry and other payment providers by allowing financial institutions to make real-time gross settlements across the RippleNet through their RTXP platform. Due to the growth in the international remittance market, the company has become very popular, and is currently the second-largest fintech firm in the US, valued at around $10 billion dollars.

RippleNet as the Internet of Value

The RippleNet is the digital network based on the Ripple Transaction Protocol (RTXP) that banks and other regulated financial entities can join to facilitate communication and payments with one another.

The RippleNet is run by “validators” who ensure that each transaction follows the RTXP protocol. Ripple authorizes a group of validators to act as trusted and permissioned nodes to update and confirm transactions on the ledger if they are all in agreement that the transaction plays by the rules.

To access the RippleNet and make use of their transfer and exchange service, one must first enter through a Gateway, which is usually run by a bank or other financial entity. Businesses can also access Gateways and the RippleNet through Ripple products XCurrent, XVia, and XRapid, which help optimize and integrate businesses’ current payment solutions with the RTXP system.

What is RTXP and XRP? How Does It Work?

RTXP is Ripple’s alternative to a blockchain. As opposed to Bitcoin, which uses a proof-of-work algorithm to update the blockchain and hash each block with a unique code, RTXP is run by trusted and authorized validators in accordance with the Ripple Consensus Protocol (RPCA).

Because the validators are already selected and don’t have to spend the energy and time solving a cryptographic puzzle, transactions occur much more quickly, and are broadcast across the nodes and validated in a mere 5-7 seconds, as to opposed to Bitcoin’s block time of 10 minutes. Furthermore, Ripple can process 1,500 transactions per second.

This also means that while Bitcoin nodes “mine” BTC coins to update the blockchain, Ripple validators do not. In Ripple, no mining occurs, and validators (possibly banks or other invested institutions) maintain the ledger just to continue benefitting from the use of that technology.

Ripple uses two tokens, XRP and IOU, to represent the transfer of value across the system. XRP tokens can be exchanged between banks for fiat currencies.

For example, if someone in America were to send USD to a friend in China (who uses CNY), the US bank could trade USD for XRP, and then trade XRP for CNY, without processing fees and waiting 3-5 business days.

An IOU, on the other hand, is a form of debt, and can either be redeemed at a Gateway for the asset it represents, or can be stored digitally in a wallet on a “line of credit.” IOUs are issued by Gateways that act as middlemen and can stand in for nearly any kind of asset, such as fiat currency, cryptocurrency, securities, and other commodities.

Another aspect of Ripple’s XRP coin is that its supply is finite. 100 billion XRP have already been created, and due to transaction costs, the overall supply should dwindle over time.

Currently, the majority of XRP is held amongst the founders, banks, and in a private escrow account. The company profits by selling XRP and its software to clients, and by holding their majority stock of XRP, which they hope will appreciate over time.

Criticisms of Ripple

The two stand-out criticisms of Ripple are its centralized nature and reliance on trust.

Although Ripple has no direct control over the validators that maintain the RTXP ledger, the founders have enough XRP and power to influence the RippleNet if they wanted to.

Also, because there is only a small group of validators running the network compared to Bitcoin’s truly decentralized system of miners, there is concern that these validators could potentially work in concert to defraud the users.

In addition, because the majority of XRP is localized among its founders and in partner institutions such as banks, Ripple is not as equally distributed as other cryptocurrencies. XRP’s value is also not necessary for Ripple’s success, as their RTXP open-source protocol can be used without XRP, and its IOU token also has utility. As a result, Ripple is not dependent on its community for investing in XRP, leading many to wonder if Ripple offers any value to average consumers.

The RippleNet has also drawn parallels to the traditional banking system with its network of Gateways acting as middlemen and requiring trust. Gateways are entry points for one to exchange currency or assets on the RippleNet. However, there is no guarantee that the Gateway will be able to reimburse an IOU.

Therefore, users must trust the Gateway to fulfill its promise and pay its debt. It is important that users exercise caution when accepting payments from untrustworthy Gateways, and Gateways, in turn, must be wary of dealing with other Gateways that are untrustworthy.

The issue of trust and paying with credit are fundamental concepts of the banking industry that most cryptocurrencies tend to avoid. Bitcoin, for example, is famously trust-less, and no transaction can be made unless it is final. Although this has raised much concern and criticism from those in the crypto community, one can see the rationale behind using IOUs in the case that one was purchasing something physical that requires time to send by mail.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Ripple hopes to create the Internet of Value with its RippleNet, allowing for the seamless and quick transfer of any type of asset under any condition. Multiple banks, including Santander and Union Credit, are using Ripple technology. Ripple has also partnered with payment processor MoneyGram, so it is making headway in adoption.

Finally, as Ripple is compliant with the new ISO20022 electronic payment communication standard, which is set to be adopted globally by banks within the next decade, the future of Ripple and XRP is in good hands.

Leading Vietnamese Bank Joins RippleNet to Boost Cross-Border Remittances

Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OCB), a major Vietnamese bank with assets worth $4.6 billion, has joined RippleNet as a strategic partner after a 10-month wait. OCB will leverage Ripple’s blockchain technology to enhance cross-border payments.

Deploying Ripple’s blockchain technology

As revealed by Phong Nguyen, OCB’s head of fintech and digital banking, the partnership will enable the bank to employ Ripple’s blockchain technology to cut down costs incurred in cross-border payments and remittances.

He noted:

“With this investment in blockchain technology which is powered by Ripple, we target to apply new technology to business in order to cut down expenses, boost productivity and bring transparency and the best service to customers with Remittance & Cross-border payment – competitive fee, instant-payment.”

OCB views this development as an incredible milestone because it has been a 10-month journey, which has involved aggressive exploration, building business use cases, and mobilizing multi-division resources.

Vietnamese consumers to benefit

Nguyen passed his gratitude to Ripple’s Singaporean team for their commitment and dedication. He alluded to the fact that the partnership would offer Vietnamese consumers impressive lending services.

By leveraging Ripple’s blockchain technology, OCB will offer its retail and SME clients more transparent and faster cross-border payments and remittances. Ripple is continuously making notable strides in delivering global financial inclusion amid an economic turmoil triggered by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Recently, it announced that it was contributing $10 million to Mercy Corps to enable it to leverage digital assets as it strives to achieve financial inclusion amid an emerging market. The announcement was made during Ripple’s 2020 Swell conference, an annual conference that converges the world’s most trusted voices in payments, financial services, blockchain technology, and policy.

Furthermore, Ripple recently revealed its third annual Blockchain in Payments Report, which identified that blockchain adoption is key to successful growth strategies for financial institutions. Therefore, the company sees blockchain as a stepping stone towards its global financial inclusion quest.

Crypto Whales Load Up on XRP, Anticipation for a Surge to $0.30 Escalates

Ripple (XRP) prices have risen by more than 2% in the past 24 hours on CoinGecko, kickstarting the week with a bang. As more crypto whales have onboarded XRP, market analysts are expecting Ripple token to surge past the $0.30 mark.

Ripple to break its downtrend

XRP is currently retesting a key resistance level with its recent upward trend. If the resistance level is broken, a shift towards $0.30 will be observed, much to the delight of Ripple investors. However, if the critical price hurdle fails to be broken, XRP will likely undergo a price correction to $0.20, according to market analysts. The push past its resistance level is key, as the price hurdle has been a major obstacle for Ripple for the past two months.

The cryptocurrency was unable to gain bullish momentum over the recent months, in comparison to the rest of the market. Rather than gaining, Ripple tokens plummeted by more than 30%, as the digital assets went from a high of $0.33 in early August to a recent low of $0.24, according to market watchers.

Market trends from Tradingview suggested that a descending parallel channel had developed over Ripple’s 1-day data chart. However, recent bullish behavior may have potentially obliterated the downward trend.

If crypto whales continue to stock up on XRP, so to speak, Ripple tokens may break its overhead resistance and surge to the $0.30 point, which would translate to gains of around 20%.

Increase in Ripple whales – will XRP price go up?

According to crypto behavior analytics firm Santiment, the number of Ripple wallets holding sizeable amounts of XRP tokens, notably sums from 1 million to 10 million, increased. Since last week, around 14 new whales have joined the Ripple network, capitalizing on the drop in prices.

Data seems to be indicating that XRP’s downtrend is nearing an end. However, 50-day and 100-day moving averages must be closely monitored, as failure to transform these resistance barriers into support levels may result in a significant price correction for XRP.

At the time of writing, XRP, the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, is trading at $0.248478 on CoinGecko.

RippleNet welcomes another partner

Recently, Ripple’s blockchain cross-border payments network onboarded another partner, Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OCB). The Vietnamese bank, said to hold $4.6 billion in assets valuation, joined RippleNet as a strategic partner. Head of OCB’s fintech and digital banking department, Phong Nguyen, said:

“With this investment in blockchain technology which is powered by Ripple, we target to apply new technology to business in order to cut down expenses, boost productivity and bring transparency and the best service to customers with Remittance & Cross-border payment – competitive fee, instant-payment.”

US Should Register Ripple’s XRP Token as a Security, Says Market Expert Peter Brandt

The question of whether Ripple’s XRP token should be classified as a security remains unclear and has been one of the main reasons as to why the blockchain firm has considered relocating its main headquarters outside of the United States.

Previously, the blockchain firm has been slapped with several lawsuits accusing it of offering unregistered securities. Ripple had refuted the allegations, asserting that XRP qualified more as a bridge currency rather than a security.

However, the status of XRP remains unclear as the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has not made a clear regulatory decision on XRP’s legal definition as a digital asset. Previously, it has been debated by US regulators that it could either fall under the category of securities or commodities. If it were to be considered a security, regulations surrounding XRP would fall under the SEC’s jurisdiction. If classified as a commodity, then it would be up to the Commodity and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to overlook and regulate XRP.

Peter Brandt, a well-known seasoned trader, offered his two cents regarding the matter. He said:

“XRP would have been declared as a security if the SEC understood cryptos. This is a classic case of a market being manipulated by a bag-holder.”

Brandt’s perspective contrasts with that of Tom Emmer, a US representative who previously argued that XRP was not a security.

As the status of XRP is still being debated by legal authorities, Brandt’s remarks highlight the uncertainty surrounding crypto regulations in the United States that have impacted many digital asset classes aside from XRP. The comment by the seasoned trader is also in response to a crypto enthusiast who observed that Ripple owned “almost half of the total circulating coins.”

Ripple spreads its wings

Ripple has recently announced that it was seeking to open regional headquarters in Dubai. The move may benefit Ripple and further the adoption of XRP, as Dubai has been working on establishing a cryptocurrency valley in the country’s free zone, where crypto and blockchain firms would run on their own judicial system. The lack of crypto regularity in the United States has pushed Ripple to consider relocating its global headquarters to another country. The final decision is still currently pending, though talks of moving Ripple operations to Japan or the UK have been greatly deliberated on these past months.

Despite the regulatory uncertainty faced by Ripple and other blockchain firms in the United States, RippleNet has grown to be one of the most leveraged blockchain-based financial payment networks, leveraged in more than 45 countries.

Though XRP has been launched by Ripple, the firm has attempted to distinguish itself from the native token and expand its clientele through other projects. The blockchain firm has nevertheless been reported to own a sizeable amount of XRP, saying that it will support healthy markets. In their Q3 annual report, it was recorded that Ripple’s XRP assets were valued at approximately $46 billion, with the blockchain firm owning more than half of the XRP tokens currently in circulation.

What Would Happen if Ripple's XRP Token Was Classified as a Security Under US Crypto Regulations?

Amid Ripple (XRP) token’s recent price surge that made headlines everywhere, whether the cryptocurrency and technology firm will stay in the US despite the lack of clear regulations still remains in question.

Ripple’s XRP: ideal for cross-border payments

A class-action lawsuit had previously been filed against US-based tech firm Ripple alleging that its XRP token should be considered a security in the country. However, in a podcast with Bitcoin bull Anthony Pompliano, Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple, broached the subject once again, clarifying that it is only the US that views XRP as a security.

In comparison with other G20 members, the US seems to be the odd one out in classifying XRP as a security. The CEO said:

“If XRP were deemed a security here in the United States, we have other G20 markets that have taken a different view. I’m not aware of any market globally that thinks that XRP is a security.”

He also added:

“It is very hard to look at XRP as a security.”

The token had previously been touted as a bridge currency between assets, enabling real-time payments and cross-border transactions to be conducted fluidly at a low cost. Garlinghouse explained the mission behind his distributed ledger technology firm:

“Ripple is trying to make value networks interoperable, and today the most painful part of non-interoperable value networks is cross-border transfers, there is a lot of friction there. RippleNet is a network of banks and financial institutions connected today that are enabling 60+ countries where we have payment corridors that continues to grow.”

US SEC authorities disagree on how to define crypto

The Ripple CEO said that it was unfortunate that the US crypto regulatory framework lacked so much clarity. Referring to the US Department of Justice (DoJ)’s released “Cryptocurrency Enforcement Framework” report, Garlinghouse pinpointed that the report, which contained over 80 pages, provided confusing definitions for cryptocurrency.

In the report, eight separate regulatory bodies have all provided their own definition of cryptocurrency, some classifying it as a commodity while others said it should be listed as a security. The confusion and lack of clear taxonomy around crypto are what is making the US lag behind other countries in the “level playing field.”

It is crippling them from staying competitive in the cryptocurrency field, in comparison with Singapore, Japan, and Switzerland. On top of those countries, which Garlinghouse stated had a very clear regulatory system surrounding crypto, the CEO also praised the UK for its crypto guidelines:

“Unfortunately, the US crypto regulatory framework is out of sync with other frameworks. You see crypto in a positive light in other countries, such as the UK. They have clear taxonomy revolving around crypto.”

Even if XRP is a security in the US, Ripple will thrive

The Ripple CEO asserted that in any case, even if XRP was classified as a security under US regulations, “RippleNet’s customers are primarily out of the United States.” He gave a ballpark figure and said that more than 90% of RippleNet clients were located in other regions of the world.

This implies that Ripple may still thrive and be profitable as a fintech company, even if it were to act on its word and move its headquarters from San Francisco.

Currently, XRP has been all the talk in crypto, with the token soaring to new heights on the market. At the time of writing, it has pulled back slightly, down 61% in the past 24 hours. Recently, it made headlines as it soared to a two-year high, outperforming Bitcoin and Ethereum in a week.

Market experts have also said that the coin has increasingly been touted and that statistics show that its social volume – its popularity on media channels and the amount of times XRP is involved in social conversations – may soon surpass Ethereum (ETH)’s.

Mati Greenspan Shocked by Ripple’s XRP Token’s Circulating Supply Up by 26% this Year

Mati Greenspan, the founder of analytics firm Quantum Economics expressed his disbelief that the circulating supply of Ripple’s XRP token has increased by 26% this year, which makes Ripple’s recent bull run to $0.70 seem less conceivable.

The data and explanation by Greenspan caused a stir in his thread, as the data indicates that Ripple’s XRP should have had greater difficulty surging to around $0.70 on most exchanges in recent weeks with so much of the XRP supply available to the public.

Ripple’s XRP token has also seen a price surge of around 160% this year, with most of its price gains coming over the course of the last month—posting similar gains to Bitcoin. However, Quantum Economics founder Mati Greenspan appears shocked due to Ripple XRP’s circulation supply.

Greenspan posted the above chart from Messari on Twitter, writing:

“WTF XRP? Is this accurate? What gives? Circulating supply of XRP is up 26% this year according to @MessariCrypto.”

The huge increase in XRP’s circulating supply this year led the Twitter-sphere to question how Ripple’s token was able to surge to $0.70 with such a huge amount of XRP available to the public in in circulation as well as raised some of the same old questions about Ripple’s operating model.

Ripple has faced criticism for the perceived lack of decentralization in its XRP network, with some Twitter followers arguing that Ripple can release the XRP tokens at will.

These comments and Greenspan’s own explanation of the XRP supply drew the ire of one seemingly knowledgeable Ripple supporter called ‘Cricket’ who argued:

“NOT even close to how it works! The supply is fixed with the exception being 1 billion tokens per month that unlocks from escrow. Ripple has put 90% to 100% of those back into a 5-year escrow. The amount of XRP hasn’t even increased more than 4 billion in the last 3 years.”

According to Ripple’s own explanation, the company has locked 55 billion XRP (55% of the total possible supply) into a series of escrows. These escrows are on the ledger itself and the ledger mechanics, enforced by consensus, control the release of the XRP.

Per Ripple’s website:

“The escrow consists of independent on ledger escrows that release a total of one billion XRP each month over the next 55 months. This provides an upper limit on the amount of new XRP that can be brought into circulation. The amount of XRP actually released into circulation will likely be much less than this. Any additional XRP leftover each month will be placed into a new escrow to release in the first month in which no escrow currently releases.”

Reasons For XRP Bull Run and Drop

As reported by Blockchain.News, the Spark (FLR) Airdrop Program, which greatly benefits XRP holders could be a reason for the massive circulating supply, as FLR tokens could be received freely on a 1:1 ratio with XRP, officially launched on December 12.

The Spark (FLR) Airdrop Program, which greatly benefits XRP holders could be a reason for the massive circulating supply, as FLR tokens could be received freely on a 1:1 ratio with XRP, officially launched on December 12.

Due to this factor, on-chain data indicates that the XRP bull run leading up to the snapshot was caused by crypto investors increasing its stake to receive more spark tokens.

Although market traders were expecting Ripple’s XRP token price to soar to unfathomable heights following Ripple-funded Flare Networks’ airdrop, the cryptocurrency did the opposite – XRP’s price crashed instead.

The price plunge of XRP was attributed to one major explanation – following the airdrop, many traders dumped their XRP funds, sending the token price down by around 8% to $0.50.

As Bitcoin booms into new realms of price discovery past $23,000 pulling the rest of the crypto market with it, XRP price has also found momentum rising 8.5% this week, with 6.5% of the token price increasing over the last 24 hours to the current price of $0.60 where it is consolidating.

The XRP token price increase may be further buoyed by recent news from Ripple’s CTO David Schwartz, who shared encouraging statistics of the new XRP Ledger software build.

After merging the performance proposals of various software engineers to optimize the XRP ledger—Schwartz reports that the optimization of the XRP Ledger (XRPL) reduces memory consumption by about 50% and improves the synchronization speed.

While this is positive news for XRP holders, the XRPL upgrade must be audited and approved prior to implementation.

Ripple Powers Remittance Corridor between Malaysia and Bangladesh with RippleNet

Ripple has signed a deal with Malaysia and Bangladesh to provide a seamless cross-border remittance corridor between the two countries.

Malaysia’s Mobile Money wallet will connect directly to Bangladesh’s bKash, the largest provider of mobile financial services which serves over 45 million users through RippleNet.

RippleNet is the digital network based on the Ripple Transaction Protocol (RTXP) that banks and other financial institutions can join to facilitate communication and payments with one another. RippleNet uses distributed ledger technology to provide financial solutions for institutions and is run by validators who ensure that each transaction follows the RTXP protocol. Ripple authorizes a group of validators to act as trusted and permissioned nodes to update and confirm transactions on the ledger if they are all in agreement that the transaction plays by the rules.

Through this partnership, Malaysia hopes to increase its user base in Bangladesh by at least 20%. In South Asia, Bangladesh has the third-largest remittance flows and Malaysia ranks as one of the top five sources of remittance for it. Worldwide, Bangladesh ranks eleventh in terms of receiving the most transfer of funds through remittance.

Despite having a target on its back in the United States for XRP, Ripple’s operations as a cross-border remittance network have continued as usual worldwide. Navin Gupta, the Managing Director for Ripple in South Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa, said:

“Ripple is keen to bring greater connectivity and convenience for the Bangladeshi population, and provide them with a more streamlined, frictionless cross-border payment experience. As Ripple is bolstering our presence in South Asia, we are excited to contribute to the infrastructure of the region to transform the way cross-border payments are executed.”

Ripple’s DLT-based payment network, RippleNet, has been rapidly expanding and has already been leveraged in more than 40 countries as of now.

Ripple Operations Expand in Asia as it Looks to Explore CBDCs with Central Banks despite SEC Legal Pressure

Despite the Securities and Exchange Commission’s lawsuit against its firm, Ripple has continued to expand its services as a fintech firm.

RippleNet innovation

Since the lawsuit last month, CEO Brad Garlinghouse disclosed that his firm has signed 15 new customers. Although many exchanges have moved to delist or halt XRP trades on their platform, in fear of facing regulatory trouble from the SEC, Ripple’s operations have continued to be sought after in the Asia Pacific region. Per its CEO:

“An increasing demand for digital financial services and payments interoperability in Asia Pacific (APAC) is further propelling the adoption of RippleNet amongst the region’s many SMEs, fintechs and PSPs (payment service providers).”

Ripple to partner with central banks for CBDCs

Brad Garlinghouse said that transactions over RippleNet – the company’s digital network leveraged by banks and institutions for payments and communication with one another – had grown fivefold in 2020, compared to 2019. In 2020, there was a 1,700% growth in transactions, and Garlinghouse said that “2020 was a banner year for Ripple, despite a disappointing ending related to US regulation.”

For this year, Ripple hopes to explore central bank digital currencies more, as there is a growing demand from Central Banks across the world to explore digital currencies, in line with the current wave of digital innovation. He said:

“To continue driving fresh innovation in crypto – and interoperability in payments – we’re focused on tackling central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) as the future of fiat.”

CEO Brad Garlinghouse explained that in order to achieve this, Ripple will continue to seek out partnerships with central banks, using XRP as a bridge currency to support the direct exchange of CBDCs on XRP Ledger (XRPL) in the future. He said:

“Key to this ongoing work with central banks and developing protocols that support the direct exchange of CBDCs on XRPL, using XRP as a bridge currency.”

Ripple highly sought after in Asia

Despite being targeted by the US for XRP as unregistered securities, what may be keeping XRP afloat may be that the majority of its trades are occurring outside of the US, namely in Asia. With the increasing demand for CBDCs by Central Banks, this may open another door for Ripple to spread its wings.

Additionally, data from Messari has also shown that despite the SEC lawsuit, XRP continues to be one of the most popular cryptocurrencies in South Korea.

Amid the frenzy caused by the SEC lawsuit, Japan-based SBI Holdings, one of Ripple’s partners, had voiced its support for the company, saying that the firm will surely be able to fight the lawsuit against the SEC. Needless to say however, the case against XRP has served to wipe out billions in its market value. While it was trading at highs of approximately $0.78 on most exchanges in the last quarter of 2020, XRP has plummeted to $0.26, reversing all its gains. Since the lawsuit, an estimated $14.5 billion in market cap has been wiped out of XRP.