TL;DR
There’s been hype around Ripple news in the past few days with multiple significant events surrounding the cryptocurrency and the organization behind it, including new partnerships, a new XRP-based exchange, a loan provider taking XRP as collateral, and Coinbase custody services allowing support for the coin.
On October 22, cryptocurrency loan provider Nexo has added XRP as the newest collateral option for the platform’s instant crypto loans. According to the organization, users with XRP balances are now able to borrow against their asset instantly. Nexo, which uses the SEC-approved custodian BitGo for the platform’s loans, provides services in over 40 fiat currencies to customers globally.
Nexo stated in its Medium post that the organization “continues to push the boundaries within the crypto-lending space by becoming the first-ever lender to start accepting XRP as collateral for crypto loans.”
A few days ago, the instant-transfer cryptocurrency exchange Changelly announced that it had opened up fiat currencies to be exchanged for XRP on the company’s platform. As Changelly allows its users to buy selected cryptocurrencies with credit and debit cards, this means that they can now conveniently purchase XRP in a matter of a few minutes.
“Time to buy XRP now! Convert USD or EUR to Ripple. Big news for Ripple fans and wise investors! You can seamlessly buy XRP on Changelly via our partner Simplex from now on. Give it a shot! Best investments, Changelly,” the cryptocurrency exchange stated.
In addition to Changelly, Bittrex has recently announced that the digital currency exchange is providing options for USD-XRP trades for its users. While these two exchanges are supporting XRP, a third one, CoinField, said that they are considering adding the coin as their platform’s base currency for both crypto and fiat pairs.
The cryptocurrency exchange dedicated to the third largest coin, XRP United, went live on October 23. The platform uses XRP as the base currency and offers three live trading pairs: BTC/XRP, ETH/XRP, and BCH/XRP. XRP United is also planning to add support for XMR/XRP.
According to the creators of the exchange, they have made XRP their standard currency to increase the use cases of the coin. The creators are striving to make the digital currency the global standard and claim that XRP will provide faster and cheaper transfers than any other currency on the crypto market.
The Texas-based wholesale cooperative financial institution, Catalyst Corporate Federal Credit Union, is reportedly exploring Ripple’s xRapid cross-border payment solution. The COO of Catalyst Corporate, Brad Ganey, said that the average payment from the United States to Mexico takes less than three minutes on Ripple’s platform.
According to Mr. Ganey, his company plans to send its first international transaction via xRapid. The COO added that “blockchain transactions could offer credit unions additional opportunity, as well, considering cross-border e-commerce transactions are expected to reach almost $1 trillion by 2020.”
On October 23, the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) issued a license to cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase granting custody services for BTC, ETH, XRP, BCH, and ETC.
This announcement may come as a surprise for many as Coinbase has not yet added XRP to its platform. Therefore, this could mean that the cryptocurrency exchange is considering support for the coin.
According to Tokentops, Ripple has signed an agreement with the Sri Lanka-based Commercial Bank of Ceylon (ComBank). The financial institution is said to join RippleNet (the company’s network) to allow cross-border transfers via Ripple’s blockchain-based protocol.
The news outlet reported that the partnership was concluded between S. Renganathan, the managing director of ComBank, and RippleNet’s Vice President of Global Sales, John Mitchell, while the representatives of both companies were witnessing the agreement.
CryptoBriefing reported that one of its sources has claimed that the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK), one of the largest banks in the Middle East, will be using Ripple’s xCurrent cross-border payment service in the “coming weeks.”
The rumor was based on an email exchange, where the financial institution was planning to test its first transaction on xCurrent. The source also stated that the NBK is waiting for approval from the Central Bank of Kuwait, which could “hopefully happen” by early November.
The article was first published on: Oct 27, 2018