Exclusive: Ripple launches liquidity service for top crypto assets
Ripple has announced plans to launch a Liquidity Hub which will give its clients access to leading cryptocurrencies at competitive rates.
The San Francisco-based company’s new Liquidity Hub will act as an aggregator to compare the cost of currencies across different sources, including exchanges, over the counter and market makers, to ensure investors get the best rates on purchases.
The company will also partner with Coinme, a provider of Bitcoin ATMs for outlets including Walmart, to expand the range of digital assets customers can purchase using the kiosks.
RippleNet’s general manager, Asheesh Birla told City PM that the company has “an exciting number of existing customers which are interested in the liquidity hub product,” with neo-banks at the forefront of adoption.
“We understand firsthand the need for easy and efficient liquidity management – and as such, we’ve received questions from our customers who are in need of solutions that can be a one stop shop to buy, sell and hold crypto assets,” Birla said.
Birla hopes that with access to increased digital asset liquidity will help to make crypto adoption more mainstream.
“Payroll in crypto is also an interesting use case,” he said. Commenting on recent news that New York’s mayor will take his first three pay checks in crypto he added, “my thought is, that same mayor is going to want part of his paycheck in NFTs or with a coin that we haven’t even thought of yet.”
That’s where Ripple’s Liquidity Hub will come in. Initially the product will provide investors with access to Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum Classic and XRP, and Birla already has plans to source liquidity from additional markets in future.
“When we can figure out the product from a regulatory and compliance standpoint we will branch into decentralized exchanges,” he told City PM, referencing a largely unregulated side of the crypto space.
The comments come as Ripple faces heat from the US’ financial watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Commission over the digital currency XRP. The SEC is suing the company for allegedly raising more than $1.3bn (£958m) through an unlicensed securities offering. Ripple is fighting the suit and claims that XRP should not be considered a security.
Despite the dispute XRP, the world’s seventh largest crypto currency by market cap, is up 14.8 per cent in the past seven days. Ripple remains one of the world’s top crypto start ups and was privately valued at $10bn in May by PitchBook.
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