tl;dr
Ripple has enhanced its RLUSD stablecoin's utility by partnering with OpenPayd, a London-based banking-as-a-service platform, to enable efficient cross-border payments using OpenPayd's real-time payment rails, multi-currency accounts, and virtual IBANs. Ripple Payments now support EUR and GBP rails ...
Ripple has made a major stride in enhancing the utility of its RLUSD stablecoin by partnering with OpenPayd, a London-based banking-as-a-service platform. This collaboration aims to broaden access to efficient cross-border payment solutions by leveraging OpenPayd's financial infrastructure, which includes real-time payment rails, multi-currency accounts, and virtual IBANs. As a result, Ripple Payments are now supported on OpenPayd's EUR and GBP payment rails, with direct minting and burning capabilities for RLUSD, enabling seamless conversion between fiat currencies and the stablecoin for enterprise clients.
Since its launch in December 2024, Ripple's USD stablecoin, RLUSD, has seen significant adoption, reaching a market capitalization of $455.52 million. In parallel, Ripple continues to advance its crypto payment ecosystem through strategic partnerships, notably with AEON. AEON's Web3 mobile payment platform, AEON Pay, now supports both XRP and RLUSD, facilitating their use in everyday transactions such as dining, retail shopping, and mobile top-ups across online and offline settings.
Adding another layer to Ripple's innovation, the XRPL EVM Sidechain recently went live on mainnet after extensive development with Peersyst and the XRPL ecosystem. This milestone introduces general-purpose smart contract functionality on Ripple's network, allowing developers to build and deploy cross-chain and Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible decentralized applications. Together, these developments underscore Ripple's commitment to expanding its blockchain utility, fostering greater adoption, and enabling versatile payment and smart contract solutions.