Ripple’s chief technology officer, David Schwartz, says the company is witnessing more demand for its XRP-powered remittance product than expected.
Schwartz says he initially thought Ripple would only see demand in inefficient and historically expensive payment routes with low levels of liquidity.
In response to a question about an apparent $1.5 million rise in 24-hour EUR/USD volume on the platform, which is called ODL, Schwartz said customers are proving him wrong.
I didn't think it would make sense in corridors that are already so efficient and liquid, but we have customers who say the speed and availability at all hours and during holidays makes it useful to them.
— David "JoelKatz" Schwartz (@JoelKatz) May 24, 2020
Back in November, Ripple for the first time revealed plans to greatly expand the reach of ODL, promising to launch additional corridors in Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.
Ripple created the settlement platform to fulfill a payments use case for XRP and give financial institutions a way to move money using the crypto asset without having to hold it themselves.
It relies on crypto exchanges to accept cash and move the equivalent value in XRP overseas. Once the XRP arrives at a corresponding exchange, it’s then converted back to fiat currency.
Ripple says ODL has the potential to give companies a new way to free up capital instead of maintaining pre-funded bank accounts in various countries to facilitate fast local payments.
The liquidity solution, which launched in late 2018, currently serves about two dozen companies including goLance, Viamericas, MoneyGram, Interbank Peru and FlashFX.
Throughout 2019, Ripple says ODL volume rose by 550% with the number of transactions jumping nearly 400% in the last quarter.
