Ripple, the creators of the XRP cryptocurrency and ledger technology stack, recently unveiled a strategic partnership with Uphold, a Web3 financial platform specializing in liquidity management.
The primary objective of this collaboration, as outlined by Ripple, is to enhance its cross-border payment network by leveraging Uphold’s expertise in liquidity management. Ripple, renowned for providing extensive financial solutions to both enterprise-level clients and a broad user base, aims to streamline cross-border payments through this venture.
Ripple and Uphold Unite to Boost Crypto Liquidity Ecosystem
Businesses interested in utilizing Ripple’s XRP cryptocurrency can initiate and pre-fund an account with Uphold. Uphold will then convert the cryptocurrency into fiat currency for seamless bank transactions. Initially concentrating on UK-Europe and US corridors, the partnership seeks to address the challenges of high costs, slow speeds, and error risks associated with traditional payment gateways. Plans are underway to expand operations to Brazil in the coming year.
Simon McLoughlin, CEO of Uphold, expressed enthusiasm about the partnership, emphasizing Uphold’s role as an essential component in Ripple’s ecosystem. Uphold’s platform connects its features to a fully automated, high-frequency trading stack linked to 30 trading venues, providing deep liquidity, multiple execution paths, and tight spreads.
Uphold sees this collaboration as a demonstration of how enterprises can efficiently conduct crypto-to-fiat transfers and bank payouts using its platform. Pegah Soltani, Head of Payments Product at Ripple, highlighted the partnership’s significance in enabling the underlying infrastructure from Ripple, leading to faster and more flexible cross-border payments.
McLoughlin disclosed Uphold’s plan to establish an initial liquidity volume of approximately $5 billion on an annual cycle. Uphold, recognized as a prominent figure in the Web3 financial platform space, boasts a robust trading infrastructure facilitating smooth transitions between fiat and crypto across various networks.
Ripple, with its advanced blockchain infrastructure, has been at the forefront of addressing challenges in cross-border payments, offering real-time payment tracking, reliable delivery time predictions, and transparent pricing with FX rates. The company’s portfolio has expanded from tokenization to custody solutions and now includes liquidity management. Present in over 55 countries across six continents, Ripple has processed over $30 billion in value on its platform. At the time of writing, Ripple’s XRP token is priced at $0.62.