By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 18th, 2024
Ripple is breaking all sorts of traditional financial trends. In recent news, Mercury FX has made their most substantial payment from the UK to Mexico using XRP. The amount was valued at £3,521.67 which in US dollar terms is equal to around $4552.
Mercury fx, an xRapid user and one of Ripple’s foremost partners recently stated that the technology has been used successfully which enabled the company to move massive amounts of capital. The company tweeted:
1/2 UK-based Mustard Foods saved £79.17 and 31 hours on the transaction.
— Mercury Global (@mercuryfxglobal) January 17, 2019
Mercury FX’s partnership was first announced during Ripple’s Swell conference back in October 2018. Brad Garlinghouse, the Chief Executive Officer of Ripple had banked on the company’s implementation of the Internet of Value and had then said:
“The internet of value is something that a lot of people don’t understand and that is Ripple’s biggest bet. One of our main goals has always been to become builders rather than the ‘disruptors’ that is talked about a lot in Silicon Valley. Being coined a disruptor is somewhat of a catnip to investors but in Ripple’s opinion we don’t always need disruption in the industry.”
This exact transfer helped a UK based company called Mustard Foods saves £79.17 and 31 hours on the transaction. Hence proving that Ripple helps companies reduce losses and gain in profits, with a saving of time which can lead to improved businesses and relationships.
Mustard Foods could be one of the best examples of the impact of using RippleNet could have as it opened doors to cheaper expenses, quicker orders and faster payments.
Ripple company has also announced that 13 new financial institutions have joined RippleNet thus propelling the number of total global customers to over 200. RippleNet currently operates in 40 countries across 6 continents.
Out of the 13 aforementioned financial institutions, 5 are confirmed as using XRP to source instant liquidity for their cross border payments. The are JNFX, SendFriend, Transpaygo, FTCS and Euro Exim Bank. London-based Euro Exim Bank announced just this week that they will become the first financial institution to fully integrate the XRP-powered xRapid in the first quarter of this year.
Garlinghouse then said:
“By the end of this year [2018], major banks will use xRapid as a liquidity tool. By the end of next year [2019], I would certainly hope that we will see…in the order of magnitude…of dozens. But we also need to continue to grow that ecosystem…grow the liquidity. “
The success behind the team from Ripple could be standing by their marketing strategy and future plans of making the financial industry a better place to be.
Just for reminder, last week was also announced that Ripple will be coming to Australia as FlashFX Announces New XRP-Based Exchange.
Together with FlashFX, XRP will launch a new Ripple-based exchange in a move that increases the rate of mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies in the country.
However, some argue that this stands counterintuitive to what the Bitcoin blockchain is aiming to achieve – both disruption and displacement of the current banking system, similar to how digital downloads and online streaming disrupted the record business.
This strategy may work in certain markets where payment services are so poor that they are better off being displaced (for example; foreign exchange and international remittance services for countries where the currency is weak). However, in developed markets like Europe and the US, using some aspects of blockchain technology (i.e. private, permissioned ledgers) to improve traditional financial institutions makes more sense for immediate adoption and profitability.
Santander praising RippleNet
Recently, Spanish bank Santander praised Ripple and reported that Ripple-powered payments application One Pay FX is offering customers the ability to send cross-border transactions at much faster speeds compared to the competitors in the field.
During the Santander International Banking Conference in Madrid, executive chairman Ana Botín said:
“You can do FX transfers, real-time, between the UK and continental Europe. And you can do Poland, Brazil, and Chile – through Santander – for the same cost as TransferWise. And that is the reason why we need to really think about what is real reciprocity. The devil is in the details and the timing.”
Catalyst Corporate Sings Strategic Partnership with Ripple
In a recap of the year 2018 report, the CEO and President of Catalyst Corporate, Kathy Garner talked about ‘strategic partnership with Ripple, signed in last year’, which will likely be in operation this year.
As the mission statement of Catalyst, she said:
“Our goal is to send the international transaction to Mexico via Ripple blockchain solutions. With this co-operative arrangement known as Currentz, secure cross-border transactions can be completed within 10 seconds.”
What is definitely more likely, is that the year 2019 with Ripple’s technology will help Catalyst reduce the cost of global remittance. As such increase the efficiency and maximize the overall profit.