Ripple recently confirmed that three of the major banks which have been testing their new product of xRapid officially moved to full commercial use. According to the official message, as of Monday the new product, which uses Ripple’s XRP as a liquidity vehicle for cross-border payments, hence moved to official full use from pilot-testing phase.
The official announcement also confirmed that the above mentioned three client banks include Mexico-based Cuallix, London-based MercuryFX and Catalyst Corporate Federal Credit Union. The last one represents 1,400 member credit unions. In addition, the official message stated that this is “the first time a digital asset is being used in commercial payments by a financial institution”.
As reported by Yahoo Finance, the CEO of Ripple, Brad Garlinghouse shared an official comment about the recent development stating: “this is a big step for Ripple. A year ago we were talking about this product as an idea, and now it’s in production and we can talk about real customers. This is also big for the XRP ecosystem, because it helps drive liquidity. But I also think it’s a big deal for the entire crypto industry. The vast majority of crypto trading is just speculative. And for crypto to reach its potential it needs to ensure that digital assets are solving real problems for real customers. Right now, we are unique in that we can point to real production, and I think XRP is uniquely positioned to solve this payment problem”.
Earlier, CEO of MercuryFX, Alastair Constance spoke about entering into partnership with Ripple stating that their company is “jumping on board with xRapid because the product has evolved in two key ways: there’s never been a dispute about speed or trust in an economic case, but it’s become a lot more user-friendly, and also its geography has expanded. I’m getting the feeling that many others are primed to jump on the XRP ledger now. The bottom line is I can make a payment that takes me two days and costs me $50, or make it in a few seconds for 5 cents. It’s a no-brainer. I think this will quietly replace the SWIFT network”.
