Mastercard Taps Ripple's RLUSD for Card Settlements with Gemini

Mastercard is exploring how to settle card flows in Ripple's USD-pegged stablecoin (RLUSD) across its network, linking XRP Ledger-backed rails to one of the world's largest payment systems.

The company is working with Gemini on an RLUSD settlement use case and expects the feature to go live in the first half of this year, according to Christian Rau, Mastercard's senior vice president for digital assets and blockchain.

Rau believes stablecoins have entered the mainstream of financial services and can speed up cross-border flows. He pointed to Mastercard's roughly 150 million acceptance locations and 3.8 billion cards as the core advantage behind the integration approach.