Ripple signs deal with UAE Exchange

The future is very bright for Ripple, as foreign exchange giant UAE Exchange just adopted XRT, in order to complete international payments, being the first major financial player to lend its backing to the blockchain technology, says The Telegraph.

The exchange, one of the biggest in the Middle East, declared that they’re planning to use the technology for making quicker cross-border payments.

New methods of paying, thanks to Ripple

“Incorporating Ripple’s blockchain technology into our payments systems will bring customers an enhanced, new payments experience,” said Promoth Manghat, CEO of UAE Exchange Group, in an official statement.

“The early adoption of this game-changing technology allows us to offer a competitive service, as it will have an impact on the speed and cost of cross-border transactions. We are proud to deliver the future of payments with Ripple,” he added.

Despite not being that popular in other areas of the globe, UAE Exchange actually has a 6.75 percent share of the $575 global remittance market. However, they don’t plan to stop here, as by 2020 they’re aiming to reach 10 percent.

Currently, the company has over 800 branches in 30 countries, which makes it the biggest exchange based in the United Arab Emirates to rely on blockchain for daily operations.

Is this the start of a long series of partnerships?

It’s not the first deal of this type Ripple signs, as they also reached agreements with UBS, MoneyGram or Santander recently, especially because of XRP’s settlement technology.

Earlier in January, XRP hit its all-time high, of $3.84, but started to go lower shortly after, as all cryptocurrencies were affected. Right now, it’s trading at just a bit over $1.00. However, considering this latest deal with UAE Exchange, it could be a sign that more and more companies will be interested in Ripple’s payments technology. Automatically, if major deals will be closed, the price could go up as well.

The Ripple network was initially launched in 2012 and acts as a system for verifying and recording transactions of various assets, including the company’s own coin, XRP.