“All of these customers run into the same problem: building bespoke connections to banks and networks all over the world. It’s expensive and time consuming. xVia enables them to grow their overall market share by reaching new customers in new markets, easier than ever before.”

The 2018 Q1 #XRP Markets Report is here! We take a critical look at the digital asset and the ecosystem around it. https://t.co/1pOrmVRhWF — Ripple (@Ripple) April 25, 2018

According to multiple reports out this morning, five brand new money transfer operators are due to confirm partnerships with Ripple , all of which are expected to announce the integration of Ripple’s xVia into their already established money transfer systems. According to Finextra.com, the companies in question are: FairFX, RationalFX, Exchange4Free, UniPAY and MoneyMatch. The partnerships will see each company trial the use of xVIA and the Ripple network with the aim to speed up the processing speed of transfers and of course, to increase the transparency and ‘end-to-end visibility’ of payment traffic. Senior Vice President of Ripple, Asheesh Birla has commented on this announcement, stating:This news further bolsters Ripples position as the leader in money transfer technology through the blockchain . Their commitment to adoption is inspiring. These five new additions join a long list of confirmed and speculative partnerships that many people believe will eventually turn Ripple’s native currency, XRP into the world’s first entirely adopted cryptocurrency. Big announcements of this nature include a recent partnership with banking group Santander and their OnePayFX app, and also speculation surrounding Apple and potential integration within their payment systems both on the App Store and through ApplePay.Yesterday, Ripple shared a tweet which links to the first quarter market report for XRP in 2018. The report has been generated to enhance the transparency of the Ripple project and to also inform users of Ripple’s services of the progress they have made in the first quarter of the year. The report, offers an insight into the world of Ripple and provides some excellent reading, if you’re interested, you can see it for yourself, here- https://ripple.com/insights/q1-2018-xrp-markets-report/ Overall this news is positive for Ripple. Whilst it is unlikely to rescue the value of XRP from its current decline (down 7.26% at the time of writing and valued at $0.78) it does continue to strengthen Ripples position and prowess, ensuring that Ripple does one day become a dominant figure across the finance industry.