Mastercard Tests Ripple's Stablecoin for Card Settlement with Gemini

Mastercard is piloting Ripple's RLUSD for card settlement with Gemini as part of its push to integrate stablecoins into existing rails. This effort is expected to go live in the first half of the year, according to Christian Rau, Mastercard's senior vice president for digital assets and blockchain.

Ripple launched RLUSD in December 2024, which has since been onboarded by exchanges, custodians, and payment firms seeking XRP Ledger settlement. Mastercard sees the potential for stablecoins to speed up cross-border flows, citing its 150 million acceptance locations and 3.8 billion cards as a key advantage.

Rau framed the RLUSD rollout as part of Mastercard's strategy to make stablecoins 'just another settlement currency within our network.' He pointed out that they offer benefits fiat currencies cannot match today, which is why Mastercard is exploring how to settle card flows in RLUSD across its network.