Ripple, an American tech company specialising in providing blockchain and cryptocurrency solutions, announced it’s launching a crypto on-demand liquidity (ODL) service in Brazil.
To introduce the service, Ripple partnered up with the Brazilian digital bank Travelex. ODL service is built on the eponymous digital settlement and remittance system of Ripple (XRP) to make transactions faster. Travelex is going to use the ODL to provide its clients and partners with simple access to international money 24/7.
💡 The ODL is registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office and represents a computing system that can provide on-demand liquidity for cross-medium transactions using direct wallet-to-wallet transfers of digital currency. It is faster and cheaper than bank remittances, provides cross-border payments with two currencies, suitable for and micropayments, and eliminates the need to maintain or fund accounts in the destination country. Pre-funding accounts are usually used to avoid slow transfers.
“Brazil is a key market for Ripple given its importance as an anchor to business in Latin America, its openness to crypto and country-wide initiatives that promote fintech innovation. As a result, the market is experiencing an explosion of activity as institutions look to adopt crypto and blockchain technology to solve customer pain points.” Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple
The Ripple press release does not specify, however, this service is available not only for fiat currencies although it uses the word “crypto” now and again (apparently, meaning rather the underlying technology than digital assets).
At launch, Travelex will support payments between Mexico and Brazil. Later on, as per the Ripple press release, there will be more countries and new related services added. Travelex became the first bank that gained approval to conduct operations nominated in foreign currency. More specifically, Travelex Bank Chief Operating Officer João Manuel Campanelli shared, according to CoinDesk, that the company is looking for ways to enter the markets in the US and Asia.
Some other Brazilian companies already use Ripple’s payments system to enhance speeding up remittances’, and Ripple has a prior background in crypto and blockchain solutions on a state level. Ripple has already been involved in CBDC research in Brazil and Palau, and Bank of France considered Ripple/XRP as the potential platform for the European CBDC. As Brazil seems to have gained momentum in the crypto world: a number of Brazilian fintech giants have also started to offer crypto services.
