From Custody To Stablecoins: Ripple Charts Course At Flagship Miami Event 'Swell'

The Ripple “Swell” conference on Oct. 15-16 brought together leaders in payments, blockchain, digital assets and economic policy.

Ripple used the event, held at the Faena Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida, to spur discussion around the future of finance and chart its plans spanning cross-border payments, custody, tokenization and its RLUSD stablecoin. Among its latest moves was the rollout of a managed payments product outside the U.S. — a project close to the company's head of payments products, Brendan Berry.

"I remember studying abroad as an undergrad and overdrawing my debit account," he shared. "I was in Barcelona, waiting on a wire transfer from my family, but with three-day settlement times, I would have to ask my girlfriend to lend me money — which was both painful and embarrassing."

Ripple plans to expand beyond cross-border payments — used for remittances, treasury management, supplier payments, and international disbursements — with the launch of its new stablecoin, RLUSD. 

"The approach we've taken is to launch a U.S. dollar fiat-backed stablecoin," Berry explained, noting the importance of offering it on both the XRP Ledger and Ethereum blockchain. In regions such as Brazil, where consumers may have difficulty holding U.S. dollars in local accounts, stablecoins enable exposure to the dollar or equivalent holdings.

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"Brazilians have the recent pain of high inflation, and being able to purchase a stablecoin provides them the U.S. dollar access they otherwise would not have," Berry explained. "Likewise, they can move that value incredibly efficiently, the way you experience with Zelle or Venmo within the bounds of the U.S. You can instantly send what you have to your friends or family members in another country."

Liquidity is vital for the success of any stablecoin, including Ripple’s RLUSD. Accordingly, Ripple established partnerships with exchanges such as Bitso in Mexico and Bitstamp in the EU, as well as with banks and market makers. Such alliances also strengthen Ripple's broader initiatives in tokenization and custody, for which it just introduced enhancements like pre-configured operational and policy settings, integration with the open-source XRP Ledger, anti-money laundering monitoring and an improved, user-friendly interface.

"We work with numerous institutions, including HSBC, BBVA, Société Générale, and DBS," Berry noted, highlighting that Ripple Custody has more than doubled its client base and now operates in over 20 countries. The company anticipates an increase in financial and real-world assets being traded as digital tokens, a trend it plans to support.

"Ripple offers top-tier solutions for digital asset custody, tokenization, and stablecoins, creating an infrastructure that bridges traditional finance with blockchain," Berry added. "This setup empowers financial institutions, crypto-native companies and fintechs to build new financial services."

Ripple's network has already processed over $70 billion in volume, and Berry projects significant growth in the cross-border payments market, which is worth tens of trillions of dollars.

"One of our key strategies has been acquiring money transmitter licenses or their local equivalents across multiple jurisdictions, including the U.S.," Berry said. "This allows us to deliver blockchain's value without requiring customers to interact with crypto directly. By securing these licenses, we're setting ourselves up for long-term success."

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Photo: Ripple “Swell,” courtesy of Ripple.