DriveWealth, the company that runs the brokerage plumbing behind investing products offered by more than 100 partners worldwide, will use Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin to settle client funds, beginning in Europe, the two firms announced on Oct. 14.
The deal brings RLUSD, running on the XRP Ledger, into the funding layer of a Brokerage-as-a-Service platform that fintechs, digital wallets and financial institutions use to give their customers access to U.S. markets. DriveWealth said it intends to bring stablecoin settlement to the U.S. as well, but gave no timeline.
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Funding at Market Speed
The companies pitched the partnership as a fix for a timing gap. U.S. stock trades now settle one business day after execution, known as T+1, while dollars sent across borders can take longer to land, tying up capital for brokers and the apps built on them.
Under the arrangement, DriveWealth clients can add money to and manage collateral accounts with stablecoins that are converted to cash almost immediately, rather than waiting for a bank wire. The integration also draws on Ripple’s tools for minting and burning RLUSD.
“We’ve already enabled 24/5 trading; now we need the funding to match, so clients can move with the markets instead of waiting for them,” Naureen Hassan, DriveWealth’s CEO, said in the companies’ press release.
Settlement is one of four pieces. DriveWealth is also adding Ripple Payments to take in cross-border funds from its global partners, and is working with Ripple on digital asset custody in Europe, with other regions to come later. The fourth piece is only under discussion. DriveWealth and Ripple Prime are looking at ways to finance equity positions via Delta One, Ripple Prime’s U.S. equities and equity derivatives business.
DriveWealth said it is moving its treasury and custody infrastructure onto Ripple’s rails too, so clients can see balances in dollars, stablecoins and crypto in a single real-time view.
Ripple’s Wider RLUSD Push
Jack McDonald, Ripple’s SVP of Stablecoins, said in the release that DriveWealth first brought Ripple a narrower cross-border settlement problem, and that “it quickly became clear there was an opportunity to do much more together.”
The tie-up adds to a run of RLUSD integrations. Last November, Mastercard teamed up with Ripple and Gemini to test settling card payments in RLUSD on the XRP Ledger. Ripple said it holds more than 85 licenses globally.
The announcement did not disclose financial terms, transaction volumes or a go-live date. Executives from both companies are scheduled to discuss the partnership at Ripple’s Swell conference in New York on Oct. 28.
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