Enterprise blockchain and crypto solutions specialist Ripple has released details of its Ripple Liquidity Hub, to be launched in 2022. The new solution will act as an aggregator to compare the cost of currencies across different sources and enable customers to access crypto assets from a range of global venues, such as market makers, exchanges and OTC desks. The list will also include decentralised venues in the future, said the company.

Clients will be able to access to leading cryptocurrencies at competitive rates, including Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum (ETH) and Ethereum Classic (ETC); Litecoin (LTC) and XRP. More tokenised assets will be added in future. The new product will also support turn-key integration and smart order routing to source digital assets at optimised prices, enabling customers to easily buy, sell, and hold crypto assets.

San Francisco-based Ripple will also partner with Coinme, a provider of Bitcoin ATMs for outlets including Walmart, to expand the range of digital assets customers can purchase using the kiosks.

Going mainstream

Interviewed by business daily City AM, RippleNet’s general manager, Asheesh Birla said the company has “an exciting number of existing customers who are interested in the liquidity hub product,” with neo-banks at the forefront of adoption.

“We understand first-hand the need for easy and efficient liquidity management – and as such, we’ve received questions from our customers who are in need of solutions that can be a one stop shop to buy, sell and hold crypto assets,” he added.

Birla hopes that access to increased digital asset liquidity will help to make crypto adoption more mainstream. “Payroll in crypto is also an interesting use case,” he added, noting that New York’s Mayor-elect Eric Adams intends to take his first three pay cheques in crypto. “My thought is, that same mayor is going to want part of his paycheque in non-fungible tokens (NFTs) or with a coin that we haven’t even thought of yet.”

“When we can figure out the product from a regulatory and compliance standpoint we will branch into decentralised exchanges,” he told the paper referencing a largely unregulated side of the crypto space.

SEC dispute

With nearly US$60 billion worth of tokens in circulation, Ripple’s XRP is the seventh-biggest digital currency globally, according to data.

Ripple also owns the RippleNet platform, a financial messaging service used by banks and other financial institutions to send money across borders. RippleNet acts as a competitor to SWIFT’s  global interbank payment network.

Ripple is also in dispute with the US Securities and Exchange Commission over XRP. The regulator has sued the company and executives Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen for allegedly raising more than $1.3 billion through an unregistered securities offering. Ripple is fighting the suit, contending that XRP should not be considered a security.