Mastercard Tests RLUSD Stablecoin for Card Settlements with Gemini

Mastercard is exploring the potential of Ripple's XRP Ledger-backed stablecoin, RLUSD, to settle card flows across its vast network. 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.

Christian Rau, Mastercard's senior vice president for digital assets and blockchain, emphasized that the effort is part of Mastercard's strategy to integrate stablecoins into its existing rails rather than running a parallel system. He pointed out that stablecoins have entered the mainstream of financial services and can speed up cross-border flows.

Rau noted that with over 150 million acceptance locations and 3.8 billion cards, Mastercard has the core advantage behind the integration approach. He argued that stablecoins offer benefits that fiat currencies cannot match today, framing them as 'just another settlement currency within our network.'