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- Asheesh Birla states in a new interview that Ripple will aggressively expand its software solutions and XRP in 2021.
- MoneyGram and Azimo will play an important role as cooperation partners for the further adaptation of XRP.
As CNF has already reported, XRP has shown strong performance in the last days and weeks, with a price increase of 163% in the last 30 days, to a price of $0.61. This puts XRP at the top of the list of best performing cryptocurrencies. In a new podcast from Lend Academy, Ripple’s General Manger Asheesh Birla explains that the company is planning an aggressive expansion for XRP in the coming months. Above all the product On-Demand Liquidity is to find further adaptation:
With the cryptocurrency product, you can send into I believe three destinations around the world. We’re expanding that aggressively in 2020 and 2021… We are going to continue to expand ODL, On-Demand Liquidity. I mentioned this is in a few countries as destinations. We want to get global coverage of that where possible by the regulators.
According to Birla, it is above all the regulatory framework around the world that plays an important role. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse emphasized in the past that he has often thought about leaving the US as a location, as it is still not clear whether XRP is classified as a security or not. He mentioned London in the United Kingdom as a possible new location, as XRP is classified as a commodity there and is subject to clearly defined laws.
In a recent interview, he reiterated that if the United States of America does not provide a clear framework, Ripple will have to move to another location, otherwise shareholders of the company could leave. In addition, Birla describes how MoneyGram and Azimo are the two most important users of ODL and are strongly driving international expansion:
The traction has been so good that, you know, 10% of US dollar to Mexico which is the largest corridor in the world for remittances, 10% of that now moves over blockchain technology, digital assets and RippleNet.
Birla also noted that more and more companies and people are realizing that banks are not absolutely necessary to move money across national borders cheaply, quickly and reliably:
So, we’ve made a pretty big dent in that in just a few years after launching. So, this is real. People are using it. It’s far superior compared to the traditional world where there’s tons of excess capital pre-positioned around the world just to facilitate payments which is crazy. That removes a lot of that because now you’re trusting a digital asset. You’re not trusting these large mega banks to move your money.
Ripple’s new credit product meets great demand
Birla closed the podcast with the outlook that Ripple will market its new product “Line of Credit” even more strongly in 2021. This is currently available to all RippleNet customers in the beta version and is used to raise capital on demand. The product is especially interesting for Fintechs and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as they can borrow XRP to use loans for any market, regardless of shipping destination or Fiat currency.
Birla said that the current traditional financial infrastructure is not able to sufficiently meet the increasing demand for loans due to the corona pandemic:
I think, you know, there are other areas as well as listen, you get lending down, you get payments down that opens up a lot of other, you know, white space for us to innovate in as well. One, in particular, is e-commerce. I think with COVID you’ve seen an explosion in growth of e-commerce. I don’t think you have the right kind of financial infrastructure to support those kinds of companies so that’s something that I’m really looking forward to in terms of innovating and building for in the upcoming year
You can listen to the full podcast here: