Ripple Targets Japanese Fintech With Grants Amid Rising Stablecoin Demand

Key Takeaways

• Ripple will offer grants of up to $200,000 to Japanese startups building on XRPL.
• Meanwhile, the firm continues to promote its stablecoin, RLUSD.
• RLUSD is positioned as a cross-border payment solution with institutional potential.

With a long-running legal battle against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finally settled, Ripple Labs has turned its attention to promoting the global adoption of its technologies.

Recent milestones for the firm’s stablecoin, RLUSD, indicate its growing prominence in the payments and financial technology (fintech) sector.

Meanwhile, a partnership with Japan’s Web3 Salon project announced on Monday, Jun 9, reflects growing ambitions in East Asia.

Ripple Teams Up With Japanese Web3 Accelerator

Web3 Salon is a Japan-based startup accelerator focused on crypto and blockchain. Organized by the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), the initiative aims to support Web3 founders with funding, networking opportunities, and mentorship. 

As part of the latest partnership, Ripple will offer grant funding of up to $200,000 to early-stage startups based in Japan, building on the XRP Ledger (XRPL).

Grants will support XRPL use cases in decentralized finance (DeFi), tokenization, and digital payments, Ripple said in a statement .

This initiative is part of the XRPL Japan and Korea Fund and Ripple’s broader 1 billion XRP (USD 2.23 billion) commitment to support ecosystem builders.

RLUSD Adoption

Officially launched in December 2024, RLUSD is Ripple’s dollar-pegged stablecoin.

Issued on both Ethereum and XRPL, RLUSD is uniquely positioned among rivals. 

With recent listings on Bitget and Kraken, RLUSD is emerging as an alternative to dominant coins in decentralized finance (DeFi) like USDt and USDC. Meanwhile, on XRPL, it fuels near-instant cross-border payments via Ripple’s core infrastructure, providing another layer of convenience for the firm’s institutional technology partners and the broader XRPL ecosystem.

RLUSD’s compliance-first design makes it ideally suited for financial institutions and large enterprises. 

The stablecoin recently secured regulatory approval from the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), paving the way for greater adoption within Dubai’s financial services sector.

Stablecoins in Traditional Finance

Upon announcing the latest partnership with Web3 Salon, Ripple highlighted payments and tokenization as key areas of innovation.

On the payments front, Ripple has built its business helping banks and fintechs manage foreign exchange flows. But with rivals like Circle increasingly positioning stablecoins as an alternative cross-border solution, Ripple is no longer the only blockchain player in the game.

Stablecoins also play a key role in emerging tokenization platforms, many of which integrate digital currencies to enable more streamlined, automated transactions. 

For now, Ripple’s Japanese grants are just that—grants. But with stablecoin adoption rising, the partnership could also give Ripple an essential foothold in emerging technology platforms that bridge the gap between DeFi and traditional finance (TradFi). 

The company has a record of using acquisitions to expand its technology’s reach. 

For example, it recently purchased Hidden Road for a reported $1.25 billion . The deal that will see the prime brokerage utilize RLUSD as collateral, expanding the stablecoin’s reach into TradFi offerings like securities lending and leveraged trade execution.