This development marks a new phase in Ripple’s strategy to expand its digital asset infrastructure across the Middle East. The DFSA’s green light allows RLUSD to operate as a payment rail within Ripple’s existing DFSA-licensed digital asset platform.
Ripple has previously established a footprint in the region, having secured regulatory approval to serve clients in the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) $40 billion cross-border payments market.
To build out its local ecosystem, Ripple is actively working with various regional entities. It has formed partnerships with Zand, a digital bank based in the UAE, and Mamo, a fintech company.
These organizations are expected to be among the early adopters of Ripple’s payment tools powered by RLUSD. Furthermore, Ripple is engaging with Ctrl Alt, a digital infrastructure firm, and the Dubai Land Department in an initiative to tokenize real estate deeds on the XRP Ledger, aimed at creating digitized property ownership frameworks backed by blockchain.
Launched in December 2024, RLUSD is fully backed by US dollar reserves and was initially approved by the New York Department of Financial Services. The stablecoin began trading on platforms such as Uphold and has since expanded to other exchanges, including Kraken.
With this approval, Ripple joins other companies leveraging the region’s legal clarity to offer services tied to digital currencies. As stablecoins gain traction globally for settlement and treasury use, regulated regional integrations such as this could help Ripple compete in a rapidly evolving financial infrastructure landscape.
Featured image created with DALL-E, Chart from TradingView
