Ripple’s ODL solution has been tapped for cross-border settlements from Canada to Mexico. 

Ripple On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) cryptocurrency exchange Bitso has partnered with Africhange to facilitate cross-border settlements between Mexico and Canada. 

Africhange has successfully processed cross-border payments worth $70 million from Canada to Nigeria. With Africhange seeking to expand its services to Mexico, the company partnered with Bitso, thus allowing remittances to be sent from Canada to Mexico. 

Rationale Behind the Partnership

According to an announcement, there has been a growing population of Mexicans who live and work in Canada due to the massive job opportunities in the country. 

As of 2020, nearly 130,000 Mexicans reside in Canada, with the number skyrocketing in the last two years. At the moment, 21% of Canada’s population are immigrants. These immigrants, representing 15% of Canada’s population, constantly send money back home to their families and loved ones. Citing a report shared by Data Mexico, Africhange said a total of $146 million had been sent to Mexico from Canada as of 2022. 

Commenting on the development, Olatunji Obaoye, Senior Product Manager at Africhange, said: 

“By leveraging the blockchain and partnering with Bitso, one of the biggest cryptocurrency platforms in Latin America, we aim to provide a cross-border exchange experience that’s seamless, cheap, and fast.”  

Obaoye added that Africhange wants to help Mexican immigrants living in Canada to easily send money back home to their loved ones. The company makes this possible by addressing the major constraints of cross-border settlements, like slow transaction process and high cost of transfers. 

Carlos Lovera, Partnerships and Business Development Lead at Bitso, said:

“We are very happy to announce this partnership with Africhange, which reinforces our commitment to bring useful crypto products to migrant communities while confirming Bitso’s leadership in one of the most successful use cases of crypto technology: cross-border payments.” 

Bitso is a top Latin American crypto company that has continued to foster cross-border payments using Ripple solutions. As reported by TheCryptoBasic, the cryptocurrency exchange collaborated with Everest for cross-border remittance to Mexico using XRP. It is noteworthy that Bitso has been a major player in large amounts of XRP transfers made recently. 

Welfare said he would reveal more of Ripple’s CBDC announcements soon.  

Leading Silicon Valley tech company Ripple is a global payment provider, and its payment solutions have been widely adopted across borders. 

While several corporate entities, like SBI Holdings, have partnered with Ripple for cross-border settlements, a few countries have selected the fintech company for Central Bank-backed Digital Currency (CBDC) projects. 

In a recent interview, Anthony Welfare, Ripple’s Senior Advisor, revealed that the blockchain company is currently working on various CBDC pilots for nations like Bhutan and the Republic of Palau. 

“Ripple has several pilots in progress for CBDCs, including the Royal Monetary Authority (RMA) of Bhutan and the Republic of Palau,” Welfare said in a recent interview. 

He added that the major focus of RippleX is not only to allow developers to build on the XRP Ledger but to partner with top firms and countries for different initiatives, including CBDC.

“For Ripple, Crypto is in our DNA: our RippleX business unit is focused on making it easy for developers to build on and with the XRP Ledger, as well as partnering with others in the crypto space on use cases like NFTs and CBDCs (aka tokenized assets),” Welfare added.  

A prominent Ripple supporter Crypto ERI shared the development on Twitter, drawing the attention of other XRP holders to the news. Interestingly, the tweet attracted not only the attention of XRP holders but also Welfare, who disclosed that Ripple would make more CBDC announcements in the coming weeks. 

Thanks @sentosumosaba for the mention – make sure you follow me for more CBDC announcements in the next few weeks ???

— Antony Welfare (@AntonyWelfare) September 6, 2022

Significance of the Initiative

Welfare’s comment is considered massive to the XRP holders, given the importance of the initiative to the crypto asset. In a recent video shared by Ripple, the company noted that all new CBDC solutions would leverage XRPL for cross-border settlements. 

according to Ripple Team:

“At ripple, we enable governments and central banks around the world to create new high-performance financial infrastructures built on blockchain technology more specifically; we help governments build and launch central bank digital currencies or CBDC.

These national currencies are powered by modern secure, centralized, and scalable technology. These CBDCs will enable central banks to implement their monetary policies more efficiently and effectively.

The Ripple team brings a wealth of expertise to every new CBDC solution working with hundreds of financial institutions, policymakers, and regulators; our solutions facilitate billions of dollars in cross-border payments around the globe.

Ripple’s CBDC solution is based upon one of the most reliable, sustainable, and open-source blockchain protocols, the XRP ledger (XRPL).

The XRP ledger technology is perfect for CBDC blockchain applications. It’s fast, with transactions completing two to three seconds, and it’s easily customizable and programmable. it’s reliable, having closed over 72 million transactions since 2012.

The ledger’s native functionality for issuing digital currencies also reduces the need for bespoke programming and reduces the risk. Finally, the technology is sustainable as one of the first carbon-neutral blockchains; each pilot is completely customizable and shaped to the needs of the central bank by an expert team.”

The more countries choose Ripple as their official CBDC partner, the more it will increase the adoption and utility of the XRP coin, which has been on a massive decline following the ongoing lawsuit between Ripple and the SEC. 

Attorney James Filan has shared a scheduling update for the Ripple vs. SEC lawsuit. 

The ongoing legal battle between Ripple and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has continued to linger for over a year. While the lawsuit was expected to be over before the end of 2021, several issues emerged that further pushed the suit’s conclusion.

Some legal analysts, like attorney James K. Filan, expect the Ripple vs. SEC lawsuit to come to its logical conclusion on March 31, 2023. However, there is a tendency that the lawsuit could linger further than the expected date. 

Attorney Filan, a former federal prosecutor, recently shared a scheduling update for the ongoing lawsuit between Ripple and the SEC. 

#XRPCommunity #SECGov v. #Ripple #XRP Scheduling Update as of September 6, 2022. pic.twitter.com/GzY6KPATJU

— James K. Filan ???? 111k (beware of imposters) (@FilanLaw) September 6, 2022

Motions to Exclude Expert Testimony

According to Filan, many disputes still need to be addressed, and the motions to exclude expert testimony top the list. The parties filed the motion to exclude expert testimony under seal on July 12, 2022. The process continued until August 30, 2022, when the parties filed replies to all opposition. 

Currently, the court has fully briefed all portions of the opposition. However, any requests to seal portions of the exclusion motion replies must be filed on or before September 9, 2022, while responses to these requests must be filed by September 16, 2022. 

Dispute Over Hinman’s Documents

Another critical issue that needs to be fully addressed is the SEC’s attorney-client privilege claim over William Hinman’s documents. It can be recalled that the SEC’s moves to keep the draft of Hinman’s 2018 speech were denied on multiple occasions by Judge Sarah Netburn. With Judge Netburn turning down the SEC’s attorney-client privilege claims, the commission was prompted to object to the ruling before Judge Analisa Torres. 

Judge Torres is yet to rule on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s objection to surrendering the Hinman documents. Attorney Filan noted that if Judge Torres turns down the SEC’s objection, the agency may be prompted to file an interlocutory appeal to the Second Circuit. 

However, for this to happen, the SEC would have to request certification of an interlocutory appeal from Judge Torres, which usually takes time. Interestingly, attorney Filan does not think Judge Torres would grant the certification in the Ripple case. 

Motions for Summary Judgment

Furthermore, the parties must file a motion for summary judgment and Rule 56.1 statements by September 13, 2022. Opposition to the motions must be filed by October 18, 2022, and replies to each opposition will follow by November 15, 2022. 

The parties are expected to also encounter sealing disputes in the summary judgment, just like the expert challenge motions. 

“I am sticking to my prediction that District Judge Torres will decide both the expert and the summary judgment motions simultaneously – on or before March 31, 2023. I have no prediction on when the Hinman email dispute will be fully and finally resolved,” attorney Filan said. 

Yesterday Attorney Hogan said that Ripple and SEC could settle before December 2022.