Caroline Bowler, CEO of the Australian cryptocurrency exchange BTC Markets, says the company’s XRP remittance and trading volume is rising at a rapid rate.
Bowler, who used to work in legacy financial services, tells Thinking Crypto that Ripple’s XRP-powered cross-border payments solution, On-Demand Liquidity, is revolutionizing financial transfers and trade settlements. And it’s showing in the exchange’s volume numbers, according to the CEO.
“I think we’re averaging about a 5% week-on-week growth since January in terms of volume coming through our exchange on XRP. And that’s a combination of both the ODL traffic and interested people in XRP. April was probably our biggest month, and it’s averaging out now [to] about an 84% growth since January. So there’s a lot out there that are interested in trading XRP through our platform.”
Given the massive size of the global remittance market, Bowler thinks the potential for increased XRP adoption is high.
“We look after the Australian dollar to the Philippine peso. That’s our initial channel that we look after. And as I understand it, I think it’s a sizable market – I think it’s about US $1.8 billion sent back in personal remittances between the two countries in 2018. So there’s a chunky piece there, but it’s only the start of journey for Ripple and for where XRP is going to go.”
Ripple created ODL to give financial institutions an enterprise-grade method of moving money across borders utilizing XRP.
ODL relies on crypto exchanges to accept cash and move the equivalent value in XRP overseas. Once it arrives at a corresponding exchange, it’s then converted back to fiat currency.
Remittances, however, are not immune from the economic impact of the global pandemic. Despite technological strides in the industry with faster and cheaper transactions, people who are affected by the coronavirus, either medically or through reduced hours or lay-offs, will send less money back home.
According to the World Bank,
“Global remittances are projected to decline sharply by about 20 percent in 2020 due to the economic crisis induced by the COVID-19 pandemic and shutdown. The projected fall, which would be the sharpest decline in recent history, is largely due to a fall in the wages and employment of migrant workers, who tend to be more vulnerable to loss of employment and wages during an economic crisis in a host country.”