u.today
Reece Merrick, Ripple’s top executive in charge of the Middle East and Africa regions, has revealed to the crypto community that the San Francisco-based giant is expanding its partnership with a UAE-based bank, Zand.
In the expanded collaboration, a bigger emphasis will be made on $RLUSD usage and Ripple’s support of Zand’s own stablecoin, AEDZ – Zand AED.
Ripple expands $RLUSD usage through Zand
Reece Merrick reminded the community about an important partnership announced by Ripple last year in the UAE – the blockchain and payments giant partnered with a major local bank, Zand. Now, Merrick says, the two players intend to expand their collaboration with a lot of attention given to Ripple’s $RLUSD in it.
One of the ballpoints here says that it will help set up direct liquidity solutions for Zand’s own stablecoin AEDZ, denominated in AED.
Merrick stated that Ripple and the UAE bank will enable support for $RLUSD and AEZD. What is more, AEDZ will begin to be issued on the $XRP Ledger. There will be “a whole range of initiatives” relating to these two stablecoins, according to Ripple’s top executive.
Last year @Ripple agreed a payments partnership with UAE bank @Official_Zand
— Reece Merrick (@reece_merrick) February 10, 2026
We’re now extending this partnership to explore a range of initiatives, from enabling support for Ripple’s $RLUSD stablecoin within Zand’s regulated digital asset custody, to direct liquidity solutions… https://t.co/4o7nZ0z9oM?from=article-links
Zand’s official X account also published a tweet on this topic, saying that Ripple and Zand are going to “help advance and support the digital economy” using innovative solutions based on AEDZ and $RLUSD.
Zand’s tweet also said that the blockchain tech, stablecoins, as well as tokenization of assets, “can unlock powerful new use cases as traditional finance moves on-chain.” The banks expect the partnership with Ripple to result in vital advance on the global growth of the digital ecosystem.
116.6 million $XRP moved between Binance and Kraken
Major on-chain tracker, Whale Alert, which monitors large crypto transactions, has spotted a massive $XRP transfer performed between two anonymous blockchain wallets. The amount transferred constituted 116,661,476 $XRP valued at an impressive $165,955,281 at the time of the transaction.
However, a deeper look at the transaction’s details revealed that the 116,661,476 $XRP were moved between subwallets that belong to two leading crypto exchanges – Binance and Kraken.
It could mean an OTC trade or liquidity rebalancing, data suggests. This move took place after the $XRP price recovered from its 30% collapse faced within a single day last week and has been trading sideways since then.