Ripple Expands Liquidity Hub to Australia and Brazil but Still no XRP Support
Ripple's Liquidity Hub is expanding to Australia and Brazil.
Key Takeaways
- Ripple’s Liquidity hub is expanding to Australia and Brazil.
- It has also integrated USDC and USDT in the latest upgrade.
- However, XRP remains unsupported by Liquidity Hub.
Ripple has announced upgrades for its Liquidity Hub platform, which now supports USDC and USDT. The enterprise liquidity management solution will also be made available in Australia and Brazil, ripple said in a press release .
With the introduction of two new stablecoins, Liquidity Hub now supports seven crypto assets and US dollars. But why does Ripple’s own token, XRP, remain unavailable on the platform?
XRP Absent From Ripple’s Liquidity Hub
Liquidity Hub is Ripple’s digital asset liquidity management platform. Originally, it was developed as an in-house solution for Ripple’s international payment network. But since April, Liquidity Hub has been externalized as a turnkey platform connecting large enterprises to a range of liquidity venues.
When Ripple initially announced plans to launch the product in 2021, it said it would support BTC, ETH, LTC, ETC, BCH, and XRP. But while it has delivered on the first five of those promises, XRP functionality never materialized, even as the platform has integrated two new stablecoins.
Commenting on the absence of Liquidity Hub support for XRP, in April, Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer Stuart Aldelroty said, “in the US there is little liquidity for XRP.”
“We’re keen to support XRP in [Liquidity Hub] when we can provide a good customer experience,” he added.
Regulatory Uncertainty Stalls Ripple’s XRP Growth
With Ripple’s battle with the SEC still not fully concluded, Adelroty’s comment that “XRP does not have regulatory clarity in the US,” suggests a further reason why the firm is stalling XRP integration for Liquidity Hub.
Finally, unlike other cryptocurrencies, Ripple Labs itself is a major liquidity provider for XRP.
Integrating XRP into Liquidity Hub could set up a situation in which Ripple is both the main seller and the primary trading venue for large XRP trades. Given ongoing scrutiny from the SEC, Ripple Labs might be reluctant to walk into such a potential regulatory minefield.
Ripple’s International Ambitions
Away from domestic challenges, Ripple has long held global ambitions.
In Thursday’s announcement , the firm said it has spent years creating a “robust global network of on- and off-ramps via Ripple Payments.”
Now, by expanding Liquidity Hub to Asutralia and Brazil, the firm is looking to leverage the global connectivity it has built in other products.
“In the future, Liquidity Hub will tap into the power of Ripple’s global network, combining the power of crypto liquidity and access to global markets,” the release stated.
