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Yesterday, Ripple made an announcement on their official news page that points towards integration of Ripples services by three new cryptocurrency exchanges . This isn’t three new exchange listings for XRP, rather it’s a little deeper than that.

xRapid is one of the numerous Ripple technologies that help Ripple stand out as a blockchain project. As we know, xRapid is most associated with XRP, the native currency to the Ripple blockchain as it’s premise is to provide cross border payments that minimise liquidity costs, via a high speed, low fee network. According to Ripple:

"xRapid, Ripple’s cross border payments product that minimizes liquidity costs, is powered by the superior speed, low transaction cost and scalability of the digital asset XRP.”

In order to work, xRapid needs to see integration with cryptocurrency exchanges, these act as gateways between countries and complete the full transfer circuit, from A to B, via xRapid. Furthermore, according to Ripple:

“For xRapid to be most successful, there needs to be a healthy ecosystem of digital asset exchange partners around the world. These exchanges allow xRapid payments to move from one currency – into XRP – and back into another currency quickly and efficiently.”

This is why, their most recent announcement is very big news for Ripple and in turn, XRP as a currency.

(USA),

(Mexico), and

(Philippines) are now set to partner with Ripple to act as digital exchange points working along xRapid transactions. This will allow for the transfer of US Dollars, Mexican Pesos and Philippine Pesos through the xRapid network. In order to help picture how this partnership will work, Ripple have written a little description to show how a transfer from the United States to Mexico might look through the Ripple and Bitso partnership:

“A financial institution, that has an account with Bittrex, initiates a payment in US dollars via xRapid which is instantly converted into XRP on Bittrex.”

“The payment amount in XRP is settled over the XRP Ledger.”

“Bitso – through its Mexican Peso liquidity pool – instantly converts the XRP into fiat, which is then settled into a destination bank account.”

In terms of cryptocurrency adoption this is great news, as Ripple are providing a bridge between countries and cryptocurrency exchanges. When lots of entities work together, they can achieve an end goal far more efficiently, that is exactly what Ripple are contributing to with these new partnerships.

Cory Johnson the Chief Market Strategist at Ripple has commented on this latest announcement:

“Bittrex is one of the biggest names in digital asset trading in the U.S. The same goes for Bitso in Mexico and Coins.ph in the Philippines. That makes today’s announcement an important development for xRapid. We’ve seen several successful xRapid pilots already, and as we move the product from beta to production later this year, these exchange partners will allow us to provide financial institutions with the comfort and assurance that their payments will move seamlessly between different currencies.”

Likewise, Ron Hose, the CEO of Coins.ph has stated:

“We are excited to be partnering with Ripple to bring the benefits of blockchain technology to cross-border payments, making sending money home more affordable for 10M+ overseas filipino workers.”

It is clear that these partnerships have big implications for Ripple and for XRP, giving XRP a new use value and a chance to be used in more cross border transfers than ever. What we also can’t forget is that this will no doubt inspire more partnerships of this nature. If this proves successful for Ripple, naturally more exchanges will want in.

You can see the full announcement from Ripple for yourself,

here

.

This is a big step up for Ripple. Considering the team have been very quiet recently, I’m sure this will be a much welcomed piece of news, one that will help boost the popularity of the company once more and one that has real world implications, making it very important for both the adoption of Ripple’s technology and the adoption of XRP too.