Ripple Labs and Convera, the global payment giant, announced a partnership for international payments. The two businesses stated that they will enhance international money transfers by utilizing blockchain technology and stablecoin.
This partnership directly bridges traditional finance with blockchain, targeting the nearly 200 countries and 140 currencies where Convera already processes billions in transactions every year.
The stablecoin sandwich model
This partnership introduces the stablecoin sandwich settlement model. In a basic international transaction, a business might need to move dirhams to Japanese yen to pay its suppliers; it might take two to five business days and involves multiple banks as a channel. In the new stablecoin sandwich model, the payment starts and ends in traditional fiat currency, and in the middle, a stablecoin is used to make the payment fast and cheaper, like RLUSD, Ripple’s own US dollar-pegged stablecoin. which currently holds a market cap of over $1.43 billion, as the intermediary settlement layer.
This sandwich allows the actual transfer of value to happen on blockchain rails in minutes or hours, providing 24/7/365 operational capacity that was previously impossible.
Perhaps the most important aspect of this partnership is that it allows enterprises to take the benefits of digital assets without actually having to touch them.
Convera handles the entire end-to-end customer experience and orchestration, while Ripple operates behind the scenes to provide liquidity and on/off-ramping through its RippleNet infrastructure.
Built for corporate treasurers
For a corporate treasurer, the experience remains entirely in familiar fiat currency, yet they gain the advantage of reduced foreign exchange risk and lower counterparty exposure.
Patrick Gauthier, the CEO of Convera, who previously led Amazon Pay, noted that the firm has been carefully watching the digital currency space mature and views Ripple as a natural fit for their global expansion.
By focusing on regulated stablecoins and a controlled, enterprise-grade network, Ripple and Convera have built a system that aligns perfectly with global financial surveillance requirements.
This development comes just after Ripple joined Singapore’s Monetary Authority of Singapore BLOOM initiative to pilot programmable cross-border trade settlements using the XRP Ledger and its own USD-pegged stablecoin, RLUSD.
The Convera collaboration underscores Ripple’s dedication to bringing blockchain technology into the everyday world of business. This move also highlights Ripple’s focus on adhering to regulatory standards.
