Ripple (XRP) News Week of March 31, 2019

Not surprisingly, the first week of Q2 saw both newsworthy events and the upward price trend continue for XRP. Picking up where we last left them, Ripple (XRP) still appears to be positioning itself for the long haul within our cryptoverse.

Expanding Ripple’s Global Reach
New exchanges and markets aside (more of which we’ll get into in a moment), in their recent video “The Ripple Drop Episode 11,” Ripple’s Director of Business Operations, Jinal Surti, revealed that the company is currently opening offices worldwide and hiring local team members.

Surti said that, “By definition, we have to be global because our customers are global. The regions behave slightly differently, so what we’re doing is we’re hiring teams that are closest to the customers in those regions to make sure that those regional differences are taken into account as we expand our presence.”

More good news came from Coinbase, who admittedly admired the speed, fees and maximum transactions that their users can enjoy with XRP, when they announced this week that users can use XRP to send money around the globe without any fees. Per their official announcement;

“You can now send money to any user with a Coinbase account around the world using XRP or USDC. By using cryptocurrencies that are optimized for cross-border transmission, you can send and receive money virtually instantly by sending those cryptocurrencies and having the recipient convert them into local currency.” However, the announcement went on to say that “if the other party is using a Non-Coinbase account, then the purchases and sales of such XRP are subjected to a Coinbase fee.”

Next up, Switzerland’s SIX Stock exchange announced the addition of an XRP based ETP (Exchange-Traded Product) from Amun AG, called Amun Ripple XRP [AXRP]. This gives Amun four cryptocurrency ETP’s on the SIX exchange; BTC-based (ABTC), ETH-based (ARTH), and (HODL5) which is based on a couple of other cryptos.

To start the new quarter, Ripple revealed on April 1st that it has become the founding member of INATBA (International Association for Trusted Blockchain Applications). The INATBA is an initiative by EU’s European Blockchain Partnership and is a link between blockchain based firms and regulators and policymakers. Other founding members include; ConsenSys, IBM Belgium, IOTA Foundation, R3, Ledger, GuardTime, Cardano Foundation, and more.

In their official video, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said, “It’s critical that as an industry we come together and engage with regulators and governments globally. The work we are seeing with the European Commission is pivotal and can be leading in this effort.”

Continuing on their world tour, the South African money transfer operator, XAGO, announced that their gateway will integrate RippleNet. RippleNet already has around 200 customers that offer payment solutions on top of their product and this move will enable Xago customers to digitally transfer funds both locally and internationally. Xago was founded by social entrepreneurs and technologists and they see blockchain technology as a potential means to help the nation enhance the use of currency and they hope to accelerate financial growth across Africa.

Last up for this week in Ripple news, the financial service firm Xendpay announced this week that they’ve added Thailand to the list of countries that their users can send money to. Xendpay runs on top of Ripple’s underlying technology, using RippleNet for cross-border payments from the UK to Vietnam, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Malaysia, but by using Ripple in its existing payment system, they ensure settlements that are much faster than the 1-3 working days that it can take with a traditional bank account.

So all-in-all, another eventful week in the world of Ripple/XRP/RippleNet. With no signs of slowing down, it looks like we’ll have plenty to discuss in the weeks to come.