• Three companies already using xRapid
• Ripple volumes in exchanges top the markets in daily coin trades
• MoneyTap launches in Japan

After several highly publicized tests, three companies have officially started using Ripple’s xRapid product. xRapid uses the XRP cryptocurrency as a ‘bridge currency in cross-border payments, reducing costs while increasing the speed of payments and boosting liquidity’.

The announcement by Ripple CEO Brad Garlinhouse during Ripple’s Swell Conference in San Francisco on October 3, 2018, named three companies MercuryFX, Cuallix and Catalyst Corporate Credit Union as putting the product into fulltime commercial use for the first time, improving Ripple prices instantly. 

Varied and Accomplished Partners

MercuryFX, facilitates international payments and Caullix which enables remittances between Mexico and the United States were among the companies that were using xRapid during the pilot phase but Catalyst Corporate Federal Credit Union, offering a range of financial services for over 1400 credit unions in Western and South Western U.S is the newest entrant to the Ripple family.

Some companies that have tested xRapid in the past include Western Union, MoneyGram, Viamericas and IDT. However, these companies are not going full throttle into xRapid as they are still working on the next steps.

The announcement marks an important milestone for the third-most valuable digital asset by market capitalization based on investors’ belief that Ripple’s product suite will eventually disrupt the current cross-border payments infrastructure dominated by the aging SWIF messaging system. Ripple SVP of product Asheesh Birla stated:

“We built xCurrent as a product to get banks started – we’ll start them using fiat transfers and then we’ll introduce later on the ability to use digital assets through xRapid. So we’re layering on xRapid on top of xCurrent […] the xRapid product leverages XRP, so if you are doing a million dollars a payment through xRapid, that is a million dollars of XRP that you would need”

MoneyTap released

In the meantime, MoneyTap, the long awaited Ripple-powered payments App has been launched today October 4 by the Japan Bank Consortium; the App will offer near-instant settlement for domestic payments in Japan. The official announcement came through an official tweet that said:

” The Japan Bank Consortium launched MoneyTap today, a Ripple-powered payments app to offer real-time settlement for domestic payments in Japan!”

MoneyTap is the pioneer mobile App that’s been developed and being used by several banks in the country. Three members of the Japan Bank consortium namely SBI Net Sumishin Bank, Suruga Bank, and Resona Bank are already live on the mobile app. The Japan bank consortium comprises 61 banks covering at least 80 percent of bank assets in Japan under the umbrella of SBI Ripple Asia.