Mastercard Joins Forces with XRP Ledger Ahead of Swell Conference
Payments giant Mastercard has joined forces with the XRP Ledger ecosystem by sponsoring an upcoming hackathon in New York. The event, scheduled for October 24-25, will bring together developers to build and launch projects on the XRP Ledger ahead of Ripple's Swell conference.
The hackathon will feature four tracks focused on protocol innovation, agentic finance, lending and borrowing. Existing teams have been encouraged to add XRPL functionality to their projects. This marks a significant development in Mastercard's relationship with Ripple, which has expanded over the past year.
Mastercard partnered with Ripple, WebBank, and Gemini in November 2025 on a $RLUSD stablecoin collaboration. The company later listed the XRP Ledger among the blockchain networks it supports and announced that its network would settle with regulated stablecoins, including $RLUSD.
This latest move highlights Mastercard's growing involvement in blockchain-based settlement and tokenization. Ripple was selected as one of the initial participants in Mastercard's CBDC Partner Program in 2023, and has since appeared together in institutional blockchain experiments and pilots.