Ripple expands the reach of the RLUSD stablecoin in Africa through new partnerships

Ripple (XRP) is extending the reach of its stablecoin RLUSD to Africa through new institutional partnerships, marking a significant step in its global expansion strategy. In addition to facilitating financial access, RLUSD is also being implemented in humanitarian pilot projects in Kenya. On-chain data shows a growing stablecoin with a market capitalization exceeding 700 million USD.

The growing activity of Ripple in the stablecoin market

On Thursday, Ripple announced that it is making its USD-backed enterprise-grade stablecoin, Ripple USD (RLUSD), available to institutions in Africa through three new partnerships with Chipper Cash, VALR, and Yellow Card.

Jack McDonald, Senior Vice President of Stablecoins at Ripple, stated: “RLUSD has quickly established itself in business financial use cases, from payments to tokenization and collateral in both crypto and traditional trading markets. We are seeing demand for RLUSD from our clients and other key institutional players globally, and we are excited to begin distribution in Africa now through our local partners.”

In addition to its availability in Africa through new partnerships, Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin is also being applied in humanitarian use cases, supporting pilot aid projects for extreme weather events in Kenya by Mercy Corps Ventures, including blockchain-based drought and rainfall insurance solutions.

Ripple has continued collaborating with top-tier partners around the world to make RLUSD globally accessible through Gate and other prominent platforms.

Since its launch in late 2024, RLUSD has experienced strong global adoption, with data from DefiLlama showing that the market capitalization of the stablecoin reached 709.95 million USD on Thursday.

Despite the growth shown by Ripple's stablecoin, data from Artemis indicates that RLUSD still has a long way to go, with monthly transaction volume increasing to 193.9 million USD in August from 119.6 million USD in July, but still well below the activity levels of stablecoins established on networks like Ethereum (ETH) and Tron (TRX).

Frequently Asked Questions about Ripple

What is Ripple?

Ripple is a payment company specializing in cross-border remittances. The company achieves this by leveraging blockchain technology. RippleNet is a network used for payment transfers created by Ripple Labs Inc. and is open to financial institutions worldwide. The company also uses the XRP token.

What is XRP?

XRP is the native token of the decentralized blockchain XRPLedger. Ripple Labs uses this token to facilitate transactions on XRPLedger, helping financial institutions transfer value across borders. Therefore, XRP enables instant and intermediary-free payments on the XRPLedger chain, assisting financial companies in reducing transaction costs globally.

What is XRPL?

XRPLedger is based on distributed ledger technology and the blockchain that uses XRP to power transactions. This ledger differs from other blockchains as it has an integrated anti-spam protocol that helps combat spam and distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDOS). The global community of XRP Ledger, a peer-to-peer network, maintains the XRPL.

What blockchain technology does XRP use?

XRP uses the Interledger standard. This is a blockchain protocol that facilitates payments between different networks. For example, the XRP blockchain can connect the ledgers of two or more banks. This effectively eliminates intermediaries and the need for centralization in the system. XRP acts as the native token of the XRPLedger blockchain, designed by Jed McCaleb, Arthur Britto, and David Schwartz.