Ripple Expands in Middle East with Riyad Bank Partnership

Key Notes

• Ripple and Riyad Bank recently entered a strategic partnership to explore blockchain.
• Their goal is to strengthen financial services across Saudi Arabia.
• This partnership comes after Ripple secured an EMI license in Luxembourg.

San Francisco-based blockchain payments firm Ripple Labs Inc. has bagged a major deal with Riyad Bank in the Middle East. Reece Merrick, the Managing Director of Middle East and Africa at Ripple, announced the new development on X, citing that it is a move targeted at advancing Saudi Arabia’s financial future through blockchain innovation.

Jeel to Explore Tokenization with Ripple

Ripple’s deal is specifically with Jeel, a subsidiary of Riyad Bank. Together, they would be exploring advanced blockchain applications that focus on strengthening financial services across Saudi Arabia.

The goal is to develop a secure and transparent digital infrastructure that can support the Middle East. Merrick acknowledged this move as one that aligns with the country’s vision.

https://twitter.com/reece_merrick/status/2015717273752019127

These are key areas of opportunity for the Gulf region’s remittance and trade corridors. Crypto custody and tokenization are fast becoming two of the strongest innovations viewed as foundational components for the coming generation’s financial markets. It will allow the storage of digital assets as well as the representation of Real World Assets (RWAs) on blockchain networks.

Moreover, this is another development within the crypto space that demonstrates the increase in institutional demand for crypto assets.

Ripple Extends Business with Garanti BBVA

On one hand, Ripple has been taking some giant steps within the crypto space. A few days ago, its USD-pegged stablecoin RLUSD was listed on Binance, the industry’s biggest crypto exchange.

This is a significant move that can direct more liquidity to the Ripple ecosystem. In the meantime, it is only supported on Ethereum, with support for XRPL coming later.

Also, Ripple extended its collaboration with Garanti BBVA, a Turkish financial institution. The bank will continue using Ripple’s institutional-grade custody technology to secure major crypto assets, including BTC and ETH, for its users. This reflects the confidence that it has in the Ripple.

The San Francisco-based firm also secured preliminary approval for an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license in Luxembourg.

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