Cross River Bank is embedding Ripple's U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin directly into its core banking infrastructure, expanding faster payment capabilities for business clients.

Cross River Bank, a technology infrastructure platform that powers embedded financial solutions and serves as a trust anchor for global banking and money movement, has announced a partnership with Ripple, a provider of blockchain solutions across traditional and digital finance. Under the partnership, RLUSD, Ripple's U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, will be integrated into Cross River's proprietary Core Operating System (COS), with support for transactions on the XRP Ledger (XRPL), a public blockchain.

The companies framed the integration as another step toward converging traditional banking and blockchain-based payments within the regulated U.S. financial system.

The regulatory backdrop around such moves has shifted quickly: RLUSD launched in December 2024 under oversight of the New York Department of Financial Services, and in July 2025 the GENIUS Act established the first federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins — the environment in which regulated banks are now approaching stablecoin integrations.

Cross River's proprietary technology platform serves as the integration layer between regulated financial services and blockchain-based payment networks. By combining traditional payment technology with RLUSD on the XRPL, the two companies are enabling a new settlement option for payment networks, giving issuers and acquirers greater flexibility to settle intraday and reduce settlement latency. That flexibility speaks to a structural friction in payments: ACH settles in batches on banking days, wires carry cut-off times, and cross-border transfers can spend days traversing correspondent banking chains — timing constraints a continuously operating tokenized dollar can sidestep.

RLUSD is purpose-built for institutional use and is issued on the XRPL, where transactions settle in 3-5 seconds at a fraction of a cent and can move 24/7. With more than $1.3 trillion in value settled to date, the XRPL provides the speed and cost efficiency underpinning the integration.

“Businesses shouldn't have to rely on several different providers to move money across the globe. Our partnership with Ripple eliminates that complexity and makes payments simpler,” said Adam Goller, Head of Fintech Banking at Cross River. “By integrating RLUSD into Cross River's existing stablecoin infrastructure, we're expanding on capabilities already in development, enabling fintechs move between US dollars and RLUSD, settle cross-border payments and treasury movement 24/7, and access ACH, wires and real-time payments through a single banking platform and API connection.”

Through the partnership, Cross River will support RLUSD payments and integrate the stablecoin across its platform, establishing RLUSD as an additional payment rail. Customers can access RLUSD through a single API connection, without the complexity of deploying blockchain infrastructure. The integration brings the programmability and near-instant settlement of stablecoins into the same environment as traditional rails, creating a unified payments experience in which businesses can leverage the strengths of both.

“Stablecoins won't transform payments through parallel financial systems. They'll do it by becoming part of the banking infrastructure businesses already use,” said Markus Infanger, Senior Vice President of RippleX at Ripple. “Cross River is at the forefront of putting that into practice by bringing RLUSD and the XRP Ledger's fast, low-cost settlement into its regulated banking platform. That combination can make it easier for fintechs to move money in real time, across borders and around the clock, while keeping the experience simple for the businesses and customers they serve.”

The expanded partnership brings one of the world's most established digital asset companies deeper into Cross River's ecosystem, reinforcing the bank's position at the intersection of financial technology, payments, and digital assets. RLUSD has grown to more than $2.5 billion in market capitalization, with more than $1 billion issued on the XRPL, as demand grows for regulated stablecoins across payments, trading, and institutional use cases.

The announcement did not include a go-live date or initial client names, so uptake will be visible in two places: how many fintechs on Cross River's platform activate RLUSD through its single API connection, and how the stablecoin's on-ledger supply develops from the more than $1 billion already issued on the XRPL.

Together, the two companies are building technology capabilities designed for a financial system in which RLUSD on the XRPL can move seamlessly alongside traditional dollars, under the same standards and with the same reliability.

The announcement was first published by Global FinTech Series.