Ripple just recorded a record year in the adoption of its proprietary suite of blockchain software solutions.
RippleNet, the company’s network of banks and payment providers that use Ripple’s blockchain technology to process payments, has witnessed an explosive year.
Back in March, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the company was signing up one new bank per week. By the end of 2018, that number has now doubled, with Ripple signing up an average of two production customers every seven days. Among the latest signups are PNC Bank, top 10 US bank, and the National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia, one of the Middle East’s most powerful financial institutions.
With an increasing number of banks in the bag, Ripple is now turning its attention toward widespread adoption of xRapid, the cross-border payment product that utilizes XRP to increase the speed and liquidity of cross-border payments.
Ripple officially launched xRapid for commercial use this week, with three financial institutions on board.
“RippleNet is now providing on-demand liquidity to financial institutions for cross-border payments using the digital asset XRP. xRapid, the Ripple product powering these transactions, is commercially available and moving into production with multiple customers, including MercuryFX, Cuallix and Catalyst Corporate Federal Credit Union.”
As for the adoption of XRP itself, Ripple says it has more institutional clients interested in XRP than ever.
According to Garlinghouse, institutional investors are buying XRP from the company at a record pace.
“One of the things I will tease for a future announcement – we’ll do the Q3 XRP markets report, which we always share, where we’re seeing institutional participation in buying XRP. Q3 will definitely be a record of institutional participation in buying and interest in holding XRP.”
At the Crypto Finance Conference in Half Moon Bay, California, Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen expanded on the company’s vision for the future of XRP.
“We think the use case for the XRP ledger and XRP the digital asset is really around, initially, reducing the cost of liquidity for cross-border payments. Long-term, though, we think it’s a key winner in this race to be another digital asset for the world for all kinds of use cases. It’s a long-term play. Has to have value. Can’t just be a store of value for store of value’s sake. Has to actually have a use case. And that’s how we see this evolving.”
Ripple owns 60% of the total supply of XRP, with 91% of that investment locked in escrow.
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