Ripple has joined forces with Cross River Bank to embed its RLUSD stablecoin directly into the bank's core banking infrastructure, giving fintech firms and corporate clients access to blockchain-based payments alongside traditional financial services through a single API.

Announced October 15, the integration links RLUSD on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) to Cross River's proprietary Core Operating System (COS), enabling round-the-clock settlement, cross-border transfers and treasury transactions. Businesses can convert between U.S. dollars and RLUSD while retaining access to ACH transfers, wire payments and real-time banking networks, without the need to build separate blockchain infrastructure. The service is initially rolling out in select U.S. states.

Cross River Adds RLUSD to Existing Banking Payment Rails

The integration allows fintech companies, payment providers and financial institutions to weave stablecoin transactions into their existing banking operations. Cross River will treat RLUSD as an additional payment rail, giving payment networks, issuers and acquirers greater flexibility to settle transactions throughout the day instead of depending exclusively on traditional banking schedules. The distinction is significant: because RLUSD runs through a regulated bank's core operating system, businesses gain blockchain settlement through the same banking relationship they already use for ACH and wire payments, rather than via a standalone crypto provider.

"Businesses shouldn't have to rely on several different providers to move money across the globe," said Adam Goller, Head of Fintech Banking at Cross River.

The bank's infrastructure will handle conversions between dollars and RLUSD, international settlement and treasury movements through its existing API, per Cross River's official announcement. Cross River has previously developed stablecoin payment infrastructure that connects blockchain transactions with regulated banking services, and adding RLUSD extends those capabilities to the XRP Ledger without requiring businesses to manage separate integrations.

Stablecoin payments are drawing growing investment from major financial institutions and payment networks. Mastercard's Global Money Platform, for example, combines fiat and stablecoin accounts, real-time conversions and cross-border payouts through BVNK. pattern points to stablecoins being positioned as standard payment infrastructure inside regulated institutions rather than as parallel crypto services — the same positioning at the heart of the Ripple-Cross River integration.

RLUSD Surpasses $2.5 Billion as XRP Ledger Payments Expand

RLUSD has surpassed $2.5 billion in market capitalization, with more than $1 billion of the stablecoin issued on the XRP Ledger. XRPL transactions typically settle within three to five seconds at a cost of a fraction of a cent, allowing stablecoin transfers to run continuously, including outside conventional banking hours. End-to-end settlement that involves external banking networks may take longer. The blockchain has processed more than $1.3 trillion in transferred value over the course of its history.

RLUSD is issued by Ripple's New York-regulated trust company and backed by reserves made up of cash, U.S. Treasuries and cash equivalents. Cross River, meanwhile, provides the banking and payment infrastructure rather than acting as the stablecoin's issuer. Ripple has expanded its institutional payment operations throughout 2026, with its global payments network surpassing $100 billion in processed volume earlier this year.

Ripple Broadens Stablecoin Infrastructure Across Banking and Fintech

The Cross River partnership follows another significant Ripple integration announced earlier this week. On October 13, Ripple teamed up with Stripe-owned Privy to bring embedded XRP Ledger wallets into applications, allowing developers to support XRP, RLUSD and programmable payments without building their own wallet infrastructure.

The two integrations cover different parts of the payment process: Privy supplies wallet creation and transaction-signing capabilities, while Cross River links stablecoin transactions to conventional banking infrastructure. Markus Infanger, Senior Vice President of RippleX, has identified the incorporation of stablecoins into existing banking platforms as central to expanding their use in commercial payments.

Cross River customers in supported U.S. states can now access RLUSD through the bank's API, with the integration supporting dollar conversions, cross-border transfers and 24/7 blockchain settlement. With availability initially confined to select U.S. states, the pace of any wider rollout will serve as a measure of how far this combined banking-and-blockchain model extends into everyday business payments.