Mastercard Tests Ripple Stablecoin for Card Settlements with Gemini
Mastercard is testing how to use Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin for card settlements across its network. This move links XRP Ledger-backed rails to one of the world's largest payment systems.
The firm is working with Gemini on an RLUSD settlement use case, and Christian Rau, Mastercard's senior vice president for digital assets and blockchain, expects this feature to go live in the first half of the year.
Rau framed the effort as part of Mastercard's push to integrate stablecoins into existing rails rather than run a parallel system. He argued that stablecoins have entered the mainstream of financial services and can speed cross-border flows.
Mastercard's roughly 150 million acceptance locations and 3.8 billion cards are seen as key advantages behind this integration approach.