The upgrade integrates custody, treasury automation and settlement tools as Ripple pushes deeper into institutional cross-border payments. Ripple is expanding its stablecoin payments platform for banks and fintechs, aiming to reduce the need to park money overseas and speed up cross-border transactions. Ripple Payments, the company’s global payments platform that connects financial institutions to blockchain-based settlement rails, has been upgraded to support a broader stablecoin workflow, including collection, custody, conversion and payout, the San Francisco-based company announced Tuesday. The move positions Ripple to compete more directly with legacy payment providers, as it is designed to reduce reliance on pre-funded accounts and traditional correspondent banking networks, which can tie up capital and delay cross-border transactions. Read more
Ether reserves held on exchanges fell to a new multi-year low as ETH price struggles to trade above $2,000. Will the supply crunch benefit bulls or bears? The balance of Ether (ETH) held on exchanges has slid to a multiyear low, with more than 31 million ETH leaving centralized exchanges in February, marking the largest monthly withdrawal since November. While the ETH price remained near $2,000, derivatives data shows a split between small buyers and larger sellers, raising the question of how the price may respond if demand becomes uniform across both retail and whale wallets. Crypto analyst Arab Chain said that more than 31.6 million ETH left major exchanges in February, the highest monthly outflow since November. Binance led with roughly 14.45 million ETH withdrawn, nearly half of the total. OKX followed with about 3.83 million ETH, and Kraken recorded close to 1.04 million ETH. Read more
SoFi will enable Mastercard issuers to settle card transactions in its cash-backed SoFiUSD stablecoin across the global payments network. SoFi Technologies has partnered with Mastercard to enable settlement in its dollar-backed stablecoin, SoFiUSD, across Mastercard’s global payments network, allowing issuers and acquirers to settle card transactions using a bank-issued digital dollar. Under the agreement, SoFi Bank N.A. plans to settle its own Mastercard credit and debit transactions in SoFiUSD, while SoFi’s payments technology platform Galileo will give client banks and card issuers the option to use the stablecoin for transaction settlement across the number two processor’s network. The company said SoFiUSD is the first stablecoin issued by a US nationally chartered and insured deposit bank on a public, permissionless blockchain and would allow transactions to be settled 24 hours a day, seven days a week across Mastercard’s network. Read more