Island country partners with Ripple to mint USD-backed stablecoin
Ripple Labs has collaborated with an island nation located in the Pacific Ocean to mint its inaugural stablecoin.
- The USD-backed stablecoin project runs on XRP Ledger.
- Only two weeks earlier, Ripple secured a partial victory in its legal battle with the SEC.
Ripple [XRP] Labs has collaborated as an industry partner with the island nation of Palau to mint its inaugural stablecoin.
Jay Hunter Anson, a member of Palau’s Ministry of Finance, shared the news on Twitter.
?? Palau National Treasury Director and our Industry partner @Ripple Senior Engineer & Lead Project Manager celebrate minting the very first Palau Stablecoin (PSC) at the National Capitol in Ngerulmud
The very limited & controlled PSC pilot tests specific use cases inside Palau… pic.twitter.com/LYcA1cjJJi
— Jay Hunter Anson (@JHX_1138) July 24, 2023
Located in the western part of the Pacific Ocean, the Republic of Palau is conducting its pilot for Palau Stablecoins (PSCs), its USD-backed stablecoin project, on XRP Ledger.
Ripple announced its partnership with the government of Palau in 2021, with a target launch date in 2022. The team executed controlled and limited PSC pilot tests with volunteers to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the stablecoin system. Palau will issue the first minted stablecoins to government employees.
Palau does not have a functioning central bank. USD is widely accepted as the primary mode of payment throughout the country.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the goal of the project is to improve access to financial services, particularly for underserved communities and socio-economic groups. It also seeks to lower payment costs across the country.
Brooks Entwistle, Senior Vice President of Global Customer Success and the Managing Director for APAC and MENA at Ripple, told Forkast News in February that the organization was in talks with over 20 governments about CBDC projects. However, the Ripple’s stablecoin project in Palau began much earlier in 2021 itself.
Ripple marches ahead post court victory
Just two weeks earlier, Ripple secured a partial victory in its legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The court ruled that though the institutional sale of XRP tokens is an instance of securities violation, the programmatic sale of XRP tokens such as those traded over crypto exchanges, didn’t constitute securities violation.
The court ruling has assured crypto firms in the U.S. that all is not lost. The ruling led to an immediate price rally across tokens.
XRP surged 73% to $0.8171 within a day of the ruling. At press time, it was trading at $0.7015.
