Ripple, digital asset infrastructure provider, has made its USD-backed stablecoin Ripple USD (RLUSD) available to institutions in Africa through three new partnerships with Chipper Cash, VALR and Yellow Card.

Since its launch in late 2024, RLUSD has experienced strong global adoption, surpassing $700 million in market capitalization, underlining demand for a compliance-first USD-backed stablecoin.

Jack McDonald, SVP of Stablecoins at Ripple noted that RLUSD is being used by enterprises for payments to tokenization of collateral in both crypto and traditional markets. He expressed excitement on distributing in Africa through local partners. He added, “We also recently enabled RLUSD in Ripple Payments, extending the breadth of stablecoins available in our cross-border payments solution to better serve our customers in Africa and worldwide.”

“After establishing our partnership with Ripple earlier this year to support faster, cheaper, more efficient cross-border payments into Africa, we were keen to make RLUSD available to our clients as soon as possible,” said Ham Serunjogi, Co-Founder & CEO at Chipper Cash. “RLUSD is uniquely positioned to drive institutional use of blockchain technology across Africa and broader global markets, including through cross-border payments.”

“As the largest crypto exchange in Africa, VALR is committed to providing our customers with access to compliant and high-quality digital assets,” said Farzam Ehsani, Co-Founder and CEO of VALR. “The listing of RLUSD reflects our broader strategy to support trusted stablecoin options that serve the evolving needs of both institutional and retail clients seeking a reliable digital dollar for a growing range of use cases.”

“This listing reinforces our commitment to providing the most reliable and compliant payment infrastructure across Africa and the emerging markets,” said Chris Maurice, CEO and Co-Founder at Yellow Card. “Our customers demand access to stable digital assets that are useful for secure cross-border payments and treasury management. Offering a regulatory-compliant stablecoin like RLUSD is a natural step in our mission to deliver trusted, enterprise-grade solutions.”

RLUSD is ideal for a number of enterprise financial use cases including facilitating instant settlement of cross-border payments; accessing liquidity for remittance and treasury operations; integrating with decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols; reliably bridging between fiat currencies and the crypto ecosystem.

Ripple continues to work with top-tier partners around the world to make RLUSD globally available. In addition to the three new African partners, RLUSD is also available through Bitso, Bitstamp, Bullish, CoinMENA, Independent Reserve, Gemini, Kraken, Mercado Bitcoin, and Uphold ensuring access and availability across most of the world.