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Blockchain-based payment protocol Ripple revealed plans for a crypto liquidity platform for financial institutions to source digital assets from the broader crypto market as a way to accelerate a shift to the space.
“While there are many exchanges supporting liquidity through the consumer trading of digital assets, a true crypto-first world will remain elusive without enterprise participation,” Ripple said in a Tuesday blog post. “Just as ubiquity for electric vehicles is impossible absent large automakers like Ford and Volvo, mainstream crypto requires engagement from financial institutions.”
Called Ripple Liquidity Hub, the platform intends to use smart order routing to source digital assets at optimized prices from market makers, exchanges, and OTC desks. Enterprises would use it to offer to their customers the chance to buy, sell and hold digital assets across different venues.
The product will avoid long integrations through a streamlined application programming interface and eliminate pre-funding requirements to free up working capital, the Ripple blog adds.
RippleNet has been using the crypto sourcing technology for about two years, according to RippleNet General Manager Asheesh Birla, and now looks to launch a customer-facing version of the product in 2022. Coinme, the first licensed bitcoin ATM company in the United States, will be the first to utilize the Liquidity Hub’s underlying technology platform.
“We know full-well the need for easy and efficient liquidity management; crypto and financial institutions are embedded in our DNA,” Birla said in a statement. “So, it makes perfect sense that as they prepare for a crypto-first world, our customers would want access to the same trusted one-stop-shop for buying, selling and holding crypto assets that has powered our own extensive work with financial institutions.”
In addition to supporting Ripple’s digital asset, XRP, the new product will support bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), litecoin (LTC), ethereum classic (ETC) and bitcoin cash (BCH). Ripple plans to add additional digital assets over time, and also intends to add staking and yield generating functionalities.
XRP was priced at $1.27 as of 4 pm ET on Tuesday, which was up 16% from seven days ago, according to CoinGecko. Its market capitalization stood at nearly $60 billion at the time, which was the seventh-highest among crypto assets — behind Solana (SOL) and ahead of Polkadot (DOT).
The SEC in December 2020 filed an action against Ripple Labs Inc. and two of its executives alleging that they raised about $1.3 billion through an unregistered, ongoing digital asset securities offering.
A Ripple spokesperson did not immediately respond to Blockworks’ request for comment.
The latest product development news follows Ripple’s announcement in September to launch a $250 million creator fund to support artists and creators building NFT projects on the XRP Ledger (XRPL). It announced partnerships with NFT marketplaces MintNFT, Mintable and VSA Partners at the time to help accelerate the initiative.
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