Ripple’s next stop: Service expansion in UK, Ireland

Ripple is working its way around the globe after being approved to operate in Singapore last month

July 25, 2023 11:28 am

Jievani/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

Ripple looks to expand its services to the UK and Ireland following its partial victory in a high profile case brought by the SEC.

Ripple has applied for a crypto asset firm license with the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and now it’s going after a payment institution license in Ireland, Sendi Young said to DL News in an article published Monday.

Young, Ripple’s European managing director, confirmed the information she provided to DL News in an early morning tweet on Tuesday. Blockworks reached out to Ripple for additional information about its activities in the UK and Ireland, but the company declined to comment.

The UK’s FCA approved Bitstamp’s registration as a crypto asset firm in June 2023. MoonPay, Wintermute Trading and eToro are among other notable firms that have registered.

In Ireland, payment institutions need to be approved by the country’s central bank, whose leader wasn’t too fond of “unbacked crypto” as recently as May.

Bank of Ireland Governor Gabriel Makhlouf said in a May blog post that “the claimed benefits of ‘unbacked crypto’ should be treated with a large dose of skepticism. The purchase of such products can be similar to purchasing a lottery ticket: you might win but you probably won’t.”

This could perhaps present a hurdle to Ripple, which is linked to the cryptocurrency XRP. Though it should be noted that Ripple says its payment solutions and XRP are separate from one another.

In fact, many banking institutions use RippleNet, an enterprise blockchain network, including Santander and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

And Ripple isn’t just expanding in Europe. Singapore allowed Ripple in June to begin offering crypto and payment services in the southeast Asian city state.

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