Mastercard Partners with Ripple for Stablecoin Settlements

Mastercard has partnered with Ripple and Gemini to pilot RLUSD stablecoin settlements on the XRP Ledger for credit card transactions. The companies announced the initiative at Ripple's Swell 2025 event, where WebBank will test settling Mastercard transactions using RLUSD on XRPL.

This marks one of the first times a regulated U.S. bank settles traditional card payments using a regulated stablecoin on a public blockchain. RLUSD, launched in December 2024 under New York's Trust Charter with full backing by cash and cash equivalents, has already surpassed $1 billion in circulation.

Ripple President Monica Long stated that the goal is to bring 'blockchain speed and efficiency to payment flows consumers already use.' The technology could replace traditional settlement rails that take one to three days to clear transactions between merchant banks and card issuers.