Mastercard Taps Ripple's Stablecoin for Card Settlement
Mastercard is collaborating with Gemini to pilot Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin for card settlement across its network. The move aims to integrate stablecoins into existing rails, rather than running a parallel system.
Christian Rau, Mastercard's senior vice president for digital assets and blockchain, explained that the firm is working on an RLUSD settlement use case with Gemini. He expects the feature to go live in the first half of the year.
Rau emphasized that stablecoins have entered the mainstream of financial services and can speed cross-border flows. He pointed out that Mastercard's large acceptance locations and cards are a key advantage behind the integration approach.
Mastercard is one of the largest payment systems in the world, with roughly 150 million acceptance locations and 3.8 billion cards. The company launched RLUSD in December 2024, and it has since been onboarded by exchanges, custodians, and payment firms seeking XRP Ledger settlement.