•Ripple announced the launch of a new platform for central banks, governments, and financial institutions to issue their own central bank digital currency.
•The Ripple CBDC Platform will leverage the same blockchain technology used on the XRP Ledger (XRPL).
•The platform is developed to address multiple use cases, such as wholesale and retail CBDCs on a private ledger or issuing a stablecoin.
Ripple Unveils Blockchain-Powered CBDC Platform
Ramp up its CBDC game, Ripple announced the launch of a new platform for central banks, governments, and financial institutions to issue their own central bank digital currency. Dubbed ‘Ripple CBDC Platform’, the offering will leverage the same blockchain technology used on the XRP Ledger (XRPL).
Features Of The Platform
The aim of the platform is to “holistically manage and customize the entire life cycle of fiat-based central bank digital currency, transaction, and distribution.” It has innovative capabilities that are expected to help facilitate instant settlement of both domestic and cross-border payments, mitigate risk vectors, and enhance user experience while sending/receiving digital currency.
Benefits Of The Platform
The Ripple CBDC Platform will let users mint, manage, transact as well as redeem CBDCs and stablecoins. This could lead to increased efficiency in global payment networks by enabling faster transactions with lower fees than traditional banking systems. Furthermore it offers improved security due to its cryptographic nature which makes it resistant to fraud or manipulation.
Impact On XRP Price
Following this development XRP price has been steadily increasing since May 12th 2021 when it was trading at $1.17 USD per coin. At press time it was trading at around $1.67 USD per coin showing an increase of about 42%.
Conclusion
This latest move from Ripple can be seen as part of its strategy for expanding into different markets including providing services related to Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). With increasing demand for digital currencies worldwide it remains to be seen how successful this product will be in competing against other similar offerings from competitors such as Facebook’s Libra project or JPMorgan’s JPM Coin initiative.