Ripple, one of the biggest blockchain companies, has announced it has $15bn of cryptocurrency reserves that it may use to acquire or partner with rivals, as it seeks to dominate its fast-moving sector within financial technology.
Ripple declares $15bn of cryptocurrency reserves and 100 members
CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the company had “moved out of the sandbox” after signing up more than 100 customers, many of which were now using its blockchain technology to move large sums of money across borders.
Blockchain is an electronic record keeping system that uses cryptography to create verifiable histories of transactions. It is a core component of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and Ripple’s own XRP.
“This is not a science experiment, it is about using real money for real customers,” Garlinghouse told the FT. “There are a lot of blockchain tourists out there who are kicking the tyres, but we are well beyond that.”
The company announced several new customers had signed up to start using its technology for cross-border payments, including France’s Crédit Agricole, Brazil’s Bexs Banco and Uruguay’s dLocal. It also said that SEB, the Swedish bank, had used Ripple’s system to transfer $180m between Sweden and the US in recent months to help manage the cash balances of one of the bank’s large corporate customers.
Ripple’s cross-border payments system is based on using its XRP cryptocurrency, which customers buy and sell almost instantaneously to move money between countries and currencies over the company’s system. It allows cross-border payments to be completed within 10 to 15 seconds, compared with about three days for interbank transactions using the Swift network.
The value of XRP has multiplied by 25 in the past five months amid a wider boom in cryptocurrencies. While the market value of XRP has risen close to $10bn, there is a further $15bn of the cryptocurrency that Ripple holds in reserve.
“Ripple owns about $15bn of XRP and we will use that to ensure that we continue to advance,” Garlinghouse said. “One of the biggest challenges for investors and the media with blockchain is to decide what is real and what is hype, as frankly some of this stuff can be done with a simple database,” he said.
The post Ripple declares $15bn of cryptocurrency reserves and 100 members appeared first on Payments Cards & Mobile.
