Market capitalization returns to the top three. In addition to ETF expectations, what has Ripple done in recent years?

Written by Yangz, Techub News

Since December 21, 2020, the battle between Ripple and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has lasted for nearly 4 years. During this period, although XRP once rose to 1.9 USDT in the 21-year bull market, it has almost hovered around 0.5 USDT in the subsequent long bear market. Although there are occasional rebounds due to "profits from litigation", XRP is actually no longer an ideal target for investors.

However, what many people did not expect was that after Trump was announced as the next president of the United States in November, XRP began to rise sharply, and on Monday it rose to 2.9 USDT (it fell back to 2.55 USDT at the time of writing), setting a new record high. Its market value also surpassed Solana in one fell swoop, returning to the third place.

There are always thousands of reasons for the rise. In addition to external factors such as "favorable regulation" and the so-called "start of the copycat season", we would like to take you to understand what Ripple itself has done in recent years?

Business persistence and expansion

In addition to being busy fighting the US SEC, what Ripple has been doing in recent years, or has been insisting on since its launch, is the construction of cross-border payments.

Before receiving the lawsuit from the US SEC, Ripple had already achieved outstanding results in this field. In 2014, Ripple welcomed its first large bank partner, Germany's Fidor Bank. Subsequently, Santander and American Express also reached cooperation with it. In addition to banks, Ripple is also making great strides in the global remittance market. In 2018, Ripple reached a preliminary cooperation with MoneyGram, the leader in the remittance field, and began to try XRP in its payment process. In 2019, the two deepened their cooperation and signed a 2-year agreement, and Ripple agreed to invest 50 million US dollars in MoneyGram. Ripple's announcement shows that by 2019, Ripple has cooperated with more than 300 financial institutions in more than 40 countries, and the total value of cross-border payments processed has reached billions of dollars.

Perhaps because of its "brilliant" achievements, Ripple received a lawsuit from the US SEC in December 2020 and started this protracted dispute. However, even so, Ripple did not stop construction.

In 2021, Ripple announced the acquisition of a 40% stake in Tranglo, an Asian cross-border payment company. In July of the same year, Ripple announced a partnership with SBI Remit, Japan's largest remittance provider, and Coins.ph, a mobile wallet service in the Philippines, to launch RippleNet's first real-time on-demand liquidity (ODL) service in Japan. In November, Ripple reached a cooperation with the Republic of Palau to develop a cross-border payment and US dollar-backed digital currency strategy for the country. By 2022, Ripple reached a cooperation with Travelex, the first bank in Brazil registered with the Central Bank of Brazil and authorized to specialize in foreign exchange business. In November of the same year, Ripple announced its entry into the African market and reached a cooperation with MFS Africa, a local digital payment gateway. Fast forward to the recent period, Ripple has reached a cooperation with Mercado Bitcoin, a Brazilian cryptocurrency trading platform, to bring faster, cheaper and more efficient cross-border payments to local users. According to Ripple's official website, it currently provides support for more than 80 markets around the world, and the total value of cross-border payments processed has reached US$50 billion.

In fact, in addition to cross-border payments, Ripple is also actively developing other businesses, mainly including cryptocurrency custody, stablecoins, CBDC and RWA.

In 2023, Ripple announced the acquisition of Metaco, a Swiss digital asset custody and tokenization technology provider, and officially entered the cryptocurrency custody market. In December, it established cooperation with digital asset custodian Zodia Custody. This year, Ripple completed the acquisition of Standard Custody & Trust Company, further promoting the development of custody business.

In terms of stablecoins, Ripple announced last year that it would further cooperate with the Republic of Palau and planned to launch a Palau stablecoin backed by the US dollar on the XRP Ledger. This year, Ripple announced that it would launch the native US dollar stablecoin RLUSD, changing its previous strategic decision to use XRP as the fulcrum. Ripple wrote in the announcement that RLUSD aims to bring more practicality and liquidity to the XRP Ledger. It will initially be launched on the XRP Ledger and Ethereum, and plans to expand to other blockchains over time. According to Fox News, the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has approved Ripple to issue the stablecoin on December 4 (no relevant news has been announced as of the time of writing). According to XRPScan data, RLUSD Treasury is already undergoing minting tests.

In terms of CBDC, Ripple launched the Ripple CBDC platform in 2023, aiming to provide CBDC issuance services to central banks, governments and financial institutions of various countries. Subsequently, Ripple reached cooperation with the Bank of the Republic of Colombia and the National Bank of Georgia (NBG).

In terms of RWA, Ripple was selected for the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's first digital Hong Kong dollar pilot program last year, and plans to work with Fubon Bank to study the use case of real estate asset tokenization. Recently, Ripple has also reached a cooperation with RWA exchange Archax and British asset management company ABRDN PLC, planning to launch the first tokenized money market fund on XRP Ledger.

Compliance efforts and industry contributions

In addition to improving its business, Ripple has also been working on "compliance" in recent years. In June 2023, Ripple announced that it had obtained the principle approval of the "Major Payment Institution License" application from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), and in October of the same year, it obtained the Major Payment Institution (MPI) license issued by the agency. In November of the same year, the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) approved XRP to join its virtual asset system, allowing the use of the digital asset in the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC). In December, Ripple's Irish subsidiary Ripple Markets registered as a virtual asset service provider (VASP) with the Central Bank of Ireland. In October of this year, Ripple released another blockbuster news, announcing that it had obtained the principle approval of the Dubai Financial Services Authority, taking another solid step forward in the progress of compliance.

In addition, Ripple has been looking forward to "speaking" for the cryptocurrency industry. In May of this year, Ripple donated $25 million to the cryptocurrency political action committee (PAC) Fairshake, and together with the $25 million donated last year, the total donation reached $50 million. Last week, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse announced that the company will continue to donate $25 million to Fairshake to help select "candidates who support cryptocurrency, growth and innovation" in future US elections. According to Reuters, Ripple and several other cryptocurrency companies are currently competing for seats on Trump's promised cryptocurrency advisory committee in order to gain a say in US cryptocurrency policy reforms.

In addition, Ripple is also working quietly in other areas. In May this year, Coinbase and several companies launched a technical anti-fraud alliance to combat online fraud and financial scams, including Ripple. In October, Ripple established a partnership with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and pledged to invest $1 million over a multi-year period to help the IRC.

Summarize

When will the four-year struggle end? Currently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has issued an ultimatum to the U.S. SEC, ordering it to submit a final brief by January 15, 2025. However, given the various changes in the past four years, it is still unknown how the case between Ripple and the SEC will end. But considering various favorable policies, including the XRP ETF expectations and Gensler's resignation, perhaps Ripple can really "show miracles when the old tree sprouts"?