Mastercard Praises Ripple's RLUSD Stablecoin at XRPL Hackathon in New York
Key Takeaways
- •Mastercard representatives publicly commended Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin at the XRPL Commons Hackathon in New York City, as reported by community member Lost Art on Oct. 24.
- •The 36-hour AI & Fintech hackathon offers over $40,000 in prizes, with Mastercard, Ripple, Ledger, AWS, and QuickNode providing mentorship and judging across four tracks focused heavily on autonomous AI-agent payments.
- •Since November 2025, Ripple has worked with Mastercard, WebBank, and Gemini to study using RLUSD for blockchain-based settlement of traditional credit card transactions between the payments network and the issuing bank.
- •Ripple joined the first cohort of Mastercard's CBDC Partner Program in August 2023 alongside Consensys and Fireblocks, marking an early phase of the companies' digital-currency collaboration.
- •In June 2026, Mastercard announced its intent to launch new settlement options featuring regulated stablecoins, including RLUSD, building on existing support for USDC, PYUSD, USDG, USDP, and SoFiUSD.
Global payments company Mastercard has publicly commended Ripple's $RLUSD stablecoin during the ongoing $XRP Ledger (XRPL) Hackathon in New York City.
According to XRPL community member Lost Art, Mastercard representatives voiced their approval of the Ripple-issued stablecoin while outlining partner pitch requirements at the event.
"Mastercard just complimented Ripple's $RLUSD live at XRPL Commons Hackathon partner pitch requirements," Lost Art said on X on Oct. 24.
Mastercard is among the official partners of the two-day hackathon, scheduled for Oct. 24–25, immediately ahead of Ripple's flagship Swell conference.
The public nod carries added weight given that $RLUSD already sits inside Mastercard's own stablecoin settlement plans.
Inside the XRPL Hackathon
The AI & Fintech XRPL Hackathon is a 36-hour developer competition held in New York City and hosted by XRPL Commons, a non-profit organization dedicated to the $XRP Ledger ecosystem. The event brings together developers, entrepreneurs, designers, and finance specialists to build new applications on the $XRP Ledger.
With more than $40K in prizes on offer, Mastercard, Ripple, the $XRP Ledger, Ledger, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and QuickNode are providing mentorship and judging participants.
The hackathon features four tracks: Agentic Finance, Lending & Borrowing, Protocol Innovation, and a catch-all category named "Why Not."
A central focus is autonomous payments executed by artificial intelligence agents. Such applications could leverage $XRP or $RLUSD to complete payments without the need for human intervention at each payment cycle.
The hackathon serves as a precursor to Ripple Swell 2026, set to take place from Oct. 27–29 in New York City, the next major gathering on Ripple's calendar.
Deepening Mastercard–Ripple Ties
Mastercard's relationship with Ripple extends beyond the $XRP Ledger's developer ecosystem. $RLUSD is a U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Ripple, meaning a digital token designed to track the value of the U.S. dollar.
In November 2025, Ripple announced it was working with Mastercard, WebBank, and crypto exchange Gemini to study $RLUSD-based settlement of traditional credit card transactions. Under the proposed setup, $RLUSD would enable blockchain-based settlement between Mastercard and WebBank, the issuing bank.
Earlier, in August 2023, Ripple was among the first cohort of Mastercard's Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Partner Program, alongside Consensys and Fireblocks.
Mastercard, meanwhile, has been rapidly scaling up its stablecoin-related offerings. In June 2026, the payments company announced its intent to launch new settlement options featuring regulated stablecoins, including Ripple's $RLUSD. The payment giant also supports Circle's USDC, PayPal's PYUSD, Paxos' USDG and USDP, and SoFiUSD.
Taken together, the hackathon partnership, the CBDC program membership, and the card-settlement work trace a relationship that has broadened from early digital-currency collaboration to stablecoin-based settlement planning.
