Mastercard Tests Ripple Stablecoin for Card Settlements

Mastercard is testing Ripple's XRP Ledger (XRP) backed stablecoin, RLUSD, as a settlement option for card flows across its network. The company has partnered with Gemini to explore this use case, aiming to integrate stablecoins into existing rails rather than running a parallel system.

According to Mastercard's senior vice president for digital assets and blockchain, Christian Rau, the feature is expected to go live in the first half of the year. He believes that stablecoins have entered the mainstream of financial services and can speed up cross-border flows.

Rau pointed out the advantages of integrating stablecoins into Mastercard's network, citing its 150 million acceptance locations and 3.8 billion cards as key benefits. 'Think about stablecoins just another settlement currency within our network,' he said.