Ripple finds a bigger payments foothold

Ripple’s partnership with Convera has pushed the crypto company further into mainstream cross-border finance, linking its blockchain infrastructure with a commercial payments group that serves businesses across more than 140 currencies and 200-plus countries and territories. Announced on March 31, the deal is designed to let corporate customers move money across borders more quickly by using stablecoins as settlement rails while keeping the customer-facing transaction anchored in fiat currencies.

That matters because Convera is not a start-up testing a niche corridor. It is the stand-alone business created from Western Union Business Solutions after the unit was sold in a $910 million deal and rebranded, giving Ripple access to an established B2B payments network rather than a purely crypto-native client base. Patrick Gauthier, Convera’s chief executive, said the group had watched customer demand for digital currencies and wanted a partner that could help it expand those capabilities without forcing clients to deal directly with the operational complexity of crypto markets.

Under the structure outlined by the companies, Convera will manage the end-to-end payment experience while Ripple supplies liquidity, on- and off-ramps and cross-border settlement infrastructure. The arrangement builds on what the companies describe as a “stablecoin sandwich” model: a transfer starts in fiat, settles through regulated stablecoins in the middle, and is delivered in fiat at the other end. That format is aimed at businesses that want faster settlement and more flexible treasury options without asking their finance teams or customers to hold digital assets directly.

For Ripple, the tie-up is strategically important because it reinforces the company’s effort to reposition itself as enterprise financial infrastructure rather than simply the company behind XRP. Ripple launched its dollar-backed stablecoin RLUSD in late 2024 as it sought a larger role in a market long dominated by Tether and USD Coin. The company’s regulatory standing also improved after the US Securities and Exchange Commission ended its long-running case against Ripple in August 2025, though the $125 million fine and injunction tied to institutional XRP sales remained in place. That outcome removed a major overhang, but it did not give Ripple a clean sweep, and institutional counterparties are still likely to weigh compliance risk carefully.

The wider market backdrop helps explain why this partnership is attracting attention beyond crypto traders. Stablecoins are moving from speculative use cases into payments, remittances and treasury management. Reuters reported in March that Pine Labs plans to launch a stablecoin-backed prepaid card across nine countries in the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia, while Stripe, PayPal and Klarna were already using stablecoins to support cross-border flows. Another Reuters report published this week highlighted OpenFX’s rapid growth as financial firms chase faster and cheaper international settlement. The trend suggests corporate payments groups increasingly see stablecoin rails as a practical tool rather than an experimental add-on.

Even so, the leap from payments partnership to an XRP breakout is not automatic. The announcement is centred on stablecoin-enabled infrastructure, not on a commitment by Convera to route payments through XRP itself. Ripple has for years argued that blockchain-based settlement can cut friction in global transfers, but the economics for enterprise clients often depend less on token enthusiasm than on compliance, liquidity management, local regulation and the ability to integrate with existing treasury systems. A strong commercial partnership can strengthen Ripple’s ecosystem and narrative, yet that is different from guaranteeing a direct demand shock for XRP.

There is also a broader caution flag hanging over stablecoin expansion. A Bank for International Settlements paper published in March said implementation of crypto and stablecoin recommendations remains uneven across jurisdictions, creating openings for regulatory arbitrage and potential financial stability risks. The same paper argues that policymakers still need better data and a clearer understanding of which cross-border payment arrangements are effective, efficient and transparent. For companies like Ripple and Convera, that means commercial momentum may build faster than harmonised rules, especially in corridors where banking access is thin but regulatory oversight is fragmented.