Ripple’s dollar-pegged stablecoin RLUSD made two concrete infrastructure moves this week: cross-chain routing platform Squid integrated RLUSD for single-transaction swaps across more than 100 blockchains and 20,000-plus tokens.
Ripple took a strategic stake in African payments giant Flutterwave at a $3.2Bn Series E valuation to embed RLUSD and the XRP Ledger into payment rails spanning 34 African markets.
What started as a payments story is quickly becoming a race to build the financial operating systems of the future.@Ripple has made a strategic investment in @theflutterwave as part of its Series E fundraising round, alongside a partnership focused on stablecoin payments,… pic.twitter.com/t0JWmn864R
— Africa Fintech Summit (@AfriFintech) June 17, 2026
Both moves are about the same underlying problem: a stablecoin is only as useful as the infrastructure that can move it. Ripple is solving that at two ends simultaneously: DeFi routing and real-world remittance corridors.
Despite these RLUSD developments, XRP USD still fell by -3.7% overnight, undoing most of the gains made over the past 10 days. XRP is trading at $1.16, with daily volume at $2.21Bn.
What Squid’s RLUSD Integration Actually Does
$XRP is forming a similar pattern to the 2024 run that took us from $0.50 to $3.30 👀
Except… this time the 1.272 Fib extension points to $8.42 🎯‼️ https://t.co/60Vwj5uTCr pic.twitter.com/gfnYHLgT47
— Tom (@Tom0nChain) June 18, 2026
Squid uses an intent-based routing system – think of it as a matchmaking layer where market makers on the destination chain fill swap orders using pooled liquidity, rather than requiring users to manually bridge or wrap tokens.
The result is that a user holding USDC on Ethereum can swap into RLUSD in a single transaction without touching multiple interfaces or paying separate bridging fees.
RLUSD is issued natively on both the XRP Ledger and Ethereum. Wormhole’s Native Token Transfer (NTT) standard extends it to Ethereum Layer 2 networks, including Base, Optimism, and Unichain. Squid’s routing layer sits above all of that, handling the path regardless of which chain RLUSD lives on at any given moment.
Lauren Berta, Ripple’s stablecoin product lead, said the integration addresses a core scaling constraint: “As demand for RLUSD grows, it needs to move freely across the ecosystems where activity is happening.
Squid handles that routing layer, which opens up a lot for payments, DeFi, and treasury use cases.” Squid’s pseudonymous co-founder, Fig, noted that the team is also building payment widgets and SDKs that Ripple developers and partners can deploy directly.
Ripple is not a passive beneficiary here; the company participated in Squid’s $6M funding round last month, bringing Squid’s total raise to $13.5M alongside North Island Ventures and Axelar co-founder Georgios Vlachos, according to The Block.
DISCOVER: Best Meme Coin ICOs to Invest in 2026
The Flutterwave Deal and the Africa Payments Opportunity
Flutterwave has processed more than one billion transactions worth over $50Bn across 34 African countries, making it one of the continent’s most embedded payments infrastructure providers.
The three-pillar integration plan with Ripple covers embedding RLUSD as a settlement asset in high-volume payment corridors, including Flutterwave’s Send App remittance product; using the XRP Ledger for faster transaction clearing; and deploying a unified API that connects Flutterwave’s domestic network to Ripple Payments.
The commercial logic is straightforward. African cross-border payments have historically incurred multi-day settlement delays and elevated foreign-exchange margins. Combining local rails, cards, mobile wallets, and bank transfers with blockchain-based clearing is a direct attack on those friction points.
The financial terms of Ripple’s stake were not disclosed, according to The Block, so the headline $3.2Bn figure reflects Flutterwave’s valuation rather than the size of Ripple’s check.
This is not Ripple’s first move on the continent. In September 2025, the company made RLUSD available to institutions in Africa through Chipper Cash, VALR, and Yellow Card, positioning those partners for cross-border payments, institutional liquidity, and treasury management, respectively.
The Flutterwave deal is the infrastructure layer on top of that distribution base. For more context on how companies are already using Ripple for cross-border payments, the pattern here is consistent with a broader institutional adoption curve.
EXCLUSIVE: Earn $10 USDC Via Binance Sign-Up
Where RLUSD Sits in the Stablecoin Market
RLUSD launched in December 2024 under a New York Department of Financial Services license, backed one-to-one by dollar deposits and short-term US Treasuries.
With a market cap of around $1.65Bn, it trails Tether’s USDT at $186.5Bn and Circle’s USDC at $75Bn, but its growth trajectory is key. By early June 2026, RLUSD expanded to over 40 networks and secured settlement support from Mastercard on the XRP Ledger.
For XRP holders, RLUSD’s volume growth directly impacts XRP demand, as XRP is the native asset on the Ledger. The potential for price increases depends on scaling beyond pilot use, which is tied to Flutterwave’s rollout.
Additionally, infrastructure expansions, like MetaMask’s initiatives in Latin America, highlight the competitive landscape for real-world payment solutions.
EXPLORE: Best Crypto Presales With Asymmetric Upside in the Current Market
Why you can trust 99Bitcoins
Established in 2013, 99Bitcoin’s team members have been crypto experts since Bitcoin’s Early days.
90hr+
Weekly Research
100k+
Monthly readers
50+
Expert contributors
2000+
Crypto Projects Reviewed
Follow 99Bitcoins on your Google News Feed
Get the latest updates, trends, and insights delivered straight to your fingertips. Subscribe now!
