Cross River Bank integrates Ripple's RLUSD, offering XRPL payments through a single API

Cross River Bank, based in New Jersey, has integrated Ripple's U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin RLUSD into its proprietary Core Operating System (COS), the bank said in a press release on Oct. 15. The integration supports transactions on the XRP Ledger (XRPL), a public blockchain, and lets fintechs connected to the bank use RLUSD alongside traditional payment rails through a single API connection.

One connection, no blockchain infrastructure

Cross River described RLUSD as an additional payment rail. Customers can send and settle stablecoin payments through a single API connection to the bank's platform without deploying blockchain infrastructure of their own. The bank said issuers, which provide cards and fund payments, and acquirers, which collect payments on behalf of merchants, gain a settlement option that allows them to settle intraday, multiple times within a single day, and reduce settlement latency. Services are currently available only in limited states. The bank did not say which states or when it would expand.

"Businesses shouldn't have to rely on several different providers to move money across the globe. Our partnership with Ripple eliminates that complexity and makes payments simpler."

Adam Goller, Head of Fintech Banking, Cross River

Goller said the integration expands on stablecoin capabilities already in development, enabling fintechs to move between U.S. dollars and RLUSD, settle cross-border payments and treasury movement 24/7, and access ACH (the U.S. automated bank transfer network), wires and real-time payments through a single banking platform and API connection.

Markus Infanger, SVP of RippleX at Ripple, said, "Stablecoins won't transform payments through parallel financial systems. They'll do it by becoming part of the banking infrastructure businesses already use." He said Cross River is putting that into practice by bringing RLUSD and the XRP Ledger's fast, low-cost settlement into its regulated banking platform.

3 to 5 seconds, a fraction of a cent

According to the release, XRPL transactions settle in 3 to 5 seconds, cost a fraction of a cent and can move 24/7. More than $1.3 trillion in value has settled on the network to date, the release said. RLUSD has grown to more than $2.5 billion in market capitalization, with more than $1 billion issued on the XRPL. Cross River already runs a stablecoin payments product and lists USDC and RLUSD as examples of approved stablecoins on its product page. Ripple, founded in 2012, holds more than 85 licenses and offers payments, custody, prime brokerage and treasury management, with RLUSD and XRP underpinning those services, according to the release.

An early Ripple bank, 12 years on

The two companies go back years. In September 2014, Cross River said it would adopt the Ripple protocol to enable real-time international payments between the U.S. and Western Europe, and Ripple described it at the time as one of the first U.S.-based banks to do so. More recently, Cross River became the bank behind X Money, the financial services offering built into Elon Musk's social media platform X. On July 27, Cross River said it would provide FDIC-insured, interest-bearing accounts and a Visa debit card, among other services, for X Money.

RLUSD volume in Korea under 0.1% of tether's

RLUSD trades on the Korean won markets of Upbit and Bithumb. As of 7:30 a.m. KST on Oct. 16, RLUSD traded at 1,352 won on Upbit and tether (USDT) at 1,349 won. At the same time, RLUSD's 24-hour trading value on Upbit was about 56.94 million won, less than 0.1% of tether's roughly 107.5 billion won. RLUSD's 24-hour trading value on Bithumb was about 15.74 million won.

At the same time, XRP traded at 1,808 won on Upbit, up 0.4% from the previous day, and at $1.3401 on Binance. The kimchi premium (the gap between prices on Korean exchanges and global markets) on Upbit was about 0.7%, compared with the Binance price converted to won using Coinyong's price data.