Earlier this month, Ripple-owned infrastructure provider Metaco said it was working with banking powerhouse HSBC.

News that Metaco, the Swiss digital assets custody firm acquired by Ripple earlier this year, is working with HSBC, one of the world’s largest banks, quickly became a reason to be cheerful for many supporters of the U.S. fintech’s ledger protocol, known collectively as the “XRP army.”

Named after the cryptocurrency designed to move liquidity around the XRP Ledger used by Ripple, these avid fans interpret HSBC’s choice of custody tech partner as yet another sign that financial institutions will inevitably adopt XRPL and, crucially, the XRP token.

The crypto space is ferociously tribal. Token holders want to believe their blockchain of choice will rise to prominence and deliver a windfall – sometimes to a point that defies logic. For instance, the assumption that Ripple’s recent acquisition spurred HSBC’s decision ignores the fact that Metaco had been courting the bank for over 18 months, according to Adrien Treccani, the Swiss custody firm’s CEO.

There is, however, an indirect correlation between Ripple protocols and Metaco’s banking clients, Treccani says.

“There is an indirect link, which is that the adoption of Ripple and Metaco’s solutions further promotes the adoption of the XRPL as a protocol,” Treccani said in an interview. “Every success of Ripple the company is also a success for the XRP Ledger.”

Ripple, for its part, has worked hard at courting banks, with a focus on ways to reduce the friction in areas like cross-border payments. As such, XRPL remains one of the longest-running examples of a private tokenization blockchain, said Treccani.

“XRPL is designed for both public and private use and scales substantially better than competitors on the market like the EVM chains,” he said, referring to the Ethereum Virtual Machine. “It natively supports tokenized assets rather than going through smart contracts, and also allows for on-chain trading with other blockchain-based exchanges or AMMs.” AMMs are automated market makers.

Combining Metaco and Ripple, therefore, offers a complete vertical stack, Treccani said, comprising an infrastructure layer and a services layer.

“We can provide a bank with the infrastructure, and also tokenization life cycle, payments primitives, and liquidity management all from a single vendor – with the proper segregation between that infrastructure and those value-added services,” he said.

This is all well and good, but rumors and reports began to emanate following the acquisition of Metaco that some of its banking customers were nervous and thinking about taking their business elsewhere. The reason perhaps concerns Ripple’s dispute with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Treccani said some of the speculation was “frankly a little bit crazy,” adding that post-acquisition discussions and reassessments by clients are par for the course, and that many of the contracts signed with the banks are subject to change-of-control clauses.

“Yes, there have been such discussions and we have spent recent months clarifying the situation with the banks,” Treccani said. “I think we have been successful. Going forward, you are going to see more tier one bank partnerships that we will soon be announcing in Europe, the U.S., APAC and Africa.”

Like many big banks, HSBC is joining the trend towards tokenization, the process of handling the ownership and transfer of real-world assets on blockchains, which requires some solid digital asset custody tech.

But Treccani makes clear that cryptocurrency and its libertarian mindset is what drives him. He said he believes many banks will want to offer cryptocurrency-related services eventually, and if they build for tokenization now, these institutions will have everything they need for cryptocurrency entry when the time comes.

“If it was just for tokenization, I would not be in this game,” he said.

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Broader crypto markets dropped 0.7% in the past 24 hours, the CoinDesk Market Index (CMI) shows.

XRP bulls had a reason to cheer as the payments firm Ripple was granted a license to offer key services in Singapore and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lost a bid to appeal in the Ripple case.

Prices rose 5.3% before retreating in Asian afternoon hours Wednesday, with trading volumes spiking to $1.7 billion from Tuesday’s $900 million, CoinGecko data shows. At the time of writing, XRP was trading at 53 cents.

District Judge Analisa Torres said in a brief ruling Tuesday that the SEC had failed to meet its burden under the law to show that there were controlling questions of law or that there are substantial grounds for differences of opinion.

Broader crypto markets fell as profit-taking continued after a strong move on Monday. The CoinDesk Market Index (CMI), a broad-based index of hundreds of tokens, fell 0.7%, indicating losses across the board.

Korean exchange UpBit, which apparently attracts massive speculative XRP trading, led volumes in the past 24 hours, with some $280 million traded on the platform. Crypto exchange Binance saw some $271 million exchanged in the same period.

XRP accounted for more than 12% of all trading activity on both exchanges, the data shows.

Ripple has historically maintained a distance from XRP, the token that powers some of its products and the XRP Ledger network. But any progress in Ripple’s court cases, or licenses, clearly has an impact on XRP prices as traders consider the two related.

On Wednesday, Ripple’s Singapore arm has secured a license as a major payments institution from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, as reported, allowing it to keep providing digital payment token services in the fast-growing region.

Ripple was granted preliminary approval in June, but now its Ripple Markets APAC Pte Ltd subsidiary has obtained its formal licensing.

This came as predominantly U.S.-focused companies are scoring wins in the Asian region, mainly due to better policies, more attractive tax rates, and a user base that does not shy away from token usage.

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The pilot will see the central bank identify the practical application of a national stablecoin and come up with a design to simulate its circulation

The Central Bank of Montenegro (CBCG) plans to develop a central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot with blockchain provider Ripple.
The pilot will see the central bank identify the practical application of a national stablecoin and come up with a design to simulate its circulation, Ripple announced on Tuesday.

The project will “analyze the advantages and risks that CBDCs or national stablecoins could pose concerning electronic means of payment availability, security, efficiency, compliance with regulations, and most importantly, the protection of end users’ rights and privacy,” CBCG Governor Radoje Zugic said in the statement.

Over 100 countries are exploring the development of a CBDC – a digitized form of central bank money for use by the public – with some having entered a practical phase.

Montenegro is a member of the European Union (EU) and part of the eurozone, so would see the adoption of a digital euro if one is introduced by the European Central Bank (ECB) . The ECB is scheduled to make a decision on whether to do so later this year.

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Nik Bougalis says he’s not joining another blockchain or Web3 company.

Ripple’s chief engineer announced over the weekend that he is leaving the company to chart new horizons, which he chose not to reveal.

“My decade-long journey at Ripple has been a fantastic (if exhausting and all-consuming) one. I got to work on a project that I love, towards a goal I believe in. But that journey will be coming to an end in a few weeks,” Bougalis tweeted.

At Ripple, Bougalis oversaw a series of developments to the ledger’s code base including the introduction of NFTs, which is scheduled to go live in November.

Bougalis’ departure comes as Ripple begins testing an XRP ledger sidechain that’s compatible with Ethereum-based smart contracts. This would allow developers familiar with the much larger Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) software to deploy their code onto Ripple.

Although unrelated to Bougalis’ position at Ripple, the company continues its two-year fight with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on whether XRP is considered a security.

Bougalis has not indicated where he will be heading next.
XRP is currently trading at $0.45, down 0.38% on-day.

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Ripple inked deals with Paris-based payment provider for online marketplaces Lemonway and Swedish money transfer provider Xbaht.

Cryptocurrency payments company Ripple Labs has formed new partnerships in France and Sweden, continuing its march into Europe despite the current wintry freeze enveloping much of the crypto industry.

Ripple signed deals for its “On-Demand Liquidity” system with Lemonway, a Paris-based regulated payments provider for online marketplaces, and Swedish money transfer provider Xbaht, which is focused on remittance payments between Sweden and Thailand. RippleNet, the collection of banks and payment providers that have signed on to use Ripple’s blockchain network for international payments, has clocked up payment volume of over $15 billion per annum, the company said in a press release.

While most crypto firms are struggling to stay afloat, Ripple appears to be in rude health, promising to add some 300-plus staff this year, a hiring goal on course to be achieved by year end, according to Ripple’s managing director for U.K. and Europe, Sendi Young. Ripple is also circling assets up for grabs in the current Celsius Network bankruptcy auction, which includes the custody platform GK8.

“It’s not pleasant to see other companies in a tough situation in this market environment, but we do find ourselves growing fast and also we are well funded,” said Young in an interview. “We are opportunistically looking at some strategic investment opportunities.”

Although it’s just one facet of the financial system, payments covers a lot of different areas such as cross border, domestic payments and retail, said Young. A specific use case might mean relying on a particular crypto solution, she added.

“I certainly believe in a future where a lot of cryptocurrencies will be commonly used, as well as some central bank digital currencies, probably some stablecoins and everything else in between,” Young said. “These different ways of carrying value will become interchangeable and there will be different use cases for all of these.”

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Ripple is teaming up with the digital bank Travelex to introduce the product, which will initially allow transactions between Brazil and Mexico.

Ripple has introduced its crypto on-demand liquidity (ODL) service in Brazil in partnership with Travelex Bank, it announced Thursday.

Ripple’s ODL uses XRP to accelerate the transfer and exchange of fiat currencies between countries.

Travelex is the first bank in Latin America to use ODL, Ripple said, adding that the bank was also the first one registered and approved by the Brazilian Central Bank to operate in foreign exchange.

“Brazil is a key market for Ripple given its importance as an anchor to business in Latin America, its openness to crypto and country-wide initiatives that promote fintech innovation,” CEO Ripple, Brad Garlinghouse, said in a statement.

For now, Travelex will use ODL for payments between Brazil and Mexico, Travelex Bank COO João Manuel Campanelli told CoinDesk, adding that the company is working to extend that service to the United States and Asia.

Other Brazilian companies such as Banco Rendimento, Remessa Online, Frente Corretora, Banco Topazio and B&T Câmbio already use RippleNet, a cross-border payments system, said Ripple, which opened an office in Brazil in 2019.

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