DriveWealth announced an Oct. 14 partnership with Ripple to plug the funding gap that plagues its network of over 100 global fintech and institutional partners. The problem is simple: DriveWealth already enables 24/5 trading, but capital sits frozen during international wire delays, forcing clients to miss market moves while waiting for transfers to clear.
The bottleneck traces to the U.S. securities market's T+1 settlement cycle, which took effect May 28, 2024. While that mandates domestic cash and securities exchange one business day after trading, cross-border dollar transfers can take days, trapping capital and inflating funding requirements across platforms.
DriveWealth is deploying Ripple USD (RLUSD)—a dollar-backed stablecoin on the XRP Ledger—for European settlement, converting it to cash in near real time. RLUSD maintains a one-to-one peg with the U.S. dollar through reserves of cash and U.S. Treasuries. The workflow feeds directly into brokerage collateral accounts, eliminating the lag of conventional wire transfers.
Ripple Mint, launched July 23, provides the issuance and redemption infrastructure. The platform connects digital dollars to financial firms' operational systems via web interface and APIs, enabling redemptions, balance checks and transaction tracking without friction.
DriveWealth plans to extend this stablecoin settlement framework to the U.S. market and is adopting Ripple Payments—Ripple's cross-border payment service—to streamline fund acceptance from global partners.
Beyond settlement, DriveWealth is integrating digital asset custody services in Europe with Ripple, targeting expansion to additional markets. Separately, Standard Chartered began offering RLUSD custody on the XRP Ledger on Oct. 12, providing bank-grade safekeeping for institutional holders.
DriveWealth's treasury integration will give partners a unified view of dollar, stablecoin and crypto holdings with seamless transfers across asset classes. The companies are also exploring equity financing through Ripple Prime, Ripple's institutional brokerage platform offering trading, clearing and financing solutions for institutional clients.
