Ripple wins Luxembourg MiCA nod, backs Flutterwave

On June 23, Luxembourg’s financial regulator issued a “Green Light Letter” to Ripple for a crypto-asset service provider license under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation. The letter is preliminary, subject to final conditions and is not a full authorization. Ripple plans to combine a final MiCA approval with its existing Luxembourg electronic money institution license to offer fiat, stablecoin and other crypto services across the European Economic Area.

Ripple took part in Flutterwave’s Series E financing that valued the Nigerian-founded payments company at $3.2 billion. The companies did not disclose the size of Ripple’s investment. Under the partnership, Flutterwave will integrate RLUSD, Ripple Payments and the XRP Ledger into its infrastructure, including the Send App remittance service.

Flutterwave intends to use RLUSD as a settlement asset, use the XRPL to clear transactions, and connect its regional payment rails to Ripple’s international payout network through a shared API. The company provides local collection and payout methods such as cards, bank transfers and mobile wallets.

Flutterwave said parts of its stablecoin infrastructure are operating commercially and undergoing tests inside Send App. The RLUSD integration is described as the next phase of that buildout. Neither firm has provided a launch timetable, projected transaction volumes, corridor prioritization, or detailed plans for converting RLUSD into local currencies.

RLUSD is issued on Ethereum and the XRP Ledger. On-chain data show a market value of about $1.62 billion since the token’s 2024 launch. By comparison, USDT and USDC had roughly $186 billion and $74.5 billion in circulation respectively.

The companies are targeting sub‑Saharan Africa in part because of high crypto activity in Nigeria. The IMF reported about $59 billion of crypto inflows into Nigeria between July 2023 and June 2024 and said Nigeria has received roughly 60% of stablecoin inflows into sub‑Saharan Africa since 2019. Dollar‑linked tokens are used there to hold value, pay suppliers abroad and receive remittances amid currency depreciation and limited foreign exchange access.

Average remittance costs to sub‑Saharan Africa are about 9% on a $200 transfer, compared with a global average near 6%, according to World Bank data. Token transfers on a ledger can settle in seconds, but full payments still depend on banks, currency dealers, compliance checks and available liquidity where digital dollars must be converted to local currency.

The IMF has warned that broad stablecoin use can resemble digital dollarization and complicate monetary policy. Transactions via wallets and offshore platforms can be harder for authorities to monitor than bank‑routed payments. Ripple and Flutterwave say they plan to embed transactions within regulated corporate infrastructure to address compliance and monitoring concerns. They will have to comply with national foreign‑exchange, payments and crypto rules in each African market.

Reece Merrick, Ripple’s managing director for Middle East and Africa, described the investment as placing RLUSD within Flutterwave’s infrastructure and routing stablecoin flows through the XRP Ledger. Cassie Craddock, Ripple’s managing director for the UK and Europe, noted growing demand from banks and fintechs for blockchain‑based payments, collateral management and tokenized assets.