Crypto firm Ripple obtains payment license in principle in Singapore

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Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, speaks during the CoinDesk 2022 Consensus Festival in Austin, Texas, USA on Saturday, June 11, 2022.

Jordan Vondehaar | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Blockchain firm Ripple said on Thursday it had received regulatory approval in principle to operate in Singapore, in a rare moment of good news for the cryptocurrency industry globally as it faces a policy of tightening at home in the United States.

Ripple said it has obtained approval in principle for a major payment institution license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the country’s central bank.

The license will allow Ripple to offer regulated digital payment token products and services and expand cross-border transfers of XRP, a cryptocurrency with which the company is closely associated, among its customers, which are banks and merchants. financial institutions.

XRP was trading around 50 cents late Wednesday night.

Ripple, a San Francisco-based financial technology company, is best known for XRP as well as its interbank messaging services based on blockchain, the distributed ledger technology that underpins many cryptocurrencies.

The company’s on-demand liquidity service uses XRP as a sort of “bridge” between currencies, which it says allows payment providers and banks to process cross-border transactions much faster than they normally would. would do on the old pay rails.

But Ripple also operates a blockchain-based international messaging system called RippleNet to facilitate bulk transfers of funds between banks and other financial institutions, similar to the global interbank messaging system SWIFT.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has accused Ripple, co-founder Christian Larsen and CEO Brad Garlinghouse of conducting an illegal securities offering that raised more than $1.3 billion from the sale of XRP.

Ripple denies the SEC claims, saying XRP is a currency rather than a security that would be subject to strict rules.

Singapore is one of the largest currency corridors from which Ripple sends money across borders using XRP, the company said in a press release.

The majority of Ripple’s global on-demand liquidity transactions transit through Singapore, which serves as the company’s Asia-Pacific regional headquarters, Ripple said.

Ripple has doubled its headcount in Singapore over the past year in key functions such as business development, compliance and finance, and plans to continue to grow its presence there.

MAS, Singapore’s financial regulator, was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.

The central bank was previously in the news for lambasting Three Arrows Capital, the disgraced crypto hedge fund that imploded after betting billions on the failure of stablecoin terraUSD, for providing misleading information regarding its relocation to the islands. British Virgins in 2021.

The Asian megacity has earned a reputation over the years as a more financial-tech and crypto-friendly jurisdiction, opening its doors to a number of big companies including domestic banking giant DBS, British fintech firm Revolut and Singapore-based crypto exchange Crypto. com.

Garlinghouse is set to speak at the Point Zero Forum in Zurich, Switzerland next Wednesday to “discuss the resurgence of innovation in digital assets through investment and thoughtful regulation,” the company said.

This follows Ripple’s $250 million purchase of Metaco, a crypto custodial services company, to expand its reach into the Swiss market and diversify away from its US home. Recently, Ripple’s Garlinghouse reported that the company has spent over $200 million. in legal fees as his legal battle with the SEC is over.

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