Mastercard, Ripple and Gemini team up to pilot stable‑coin settlements of card transactions on the XRPL

In a potential inflection point for payments infrastructure, Mastercard has joined forces with Ripple, Gemini Trust Company and WebBank to test using a regulated stable‑coin on the public XRP Ledger (XRPL) to settle traditional credit‑card transactions.

The announcement

The collaboration seeks to utilise the stable­­coin RLUSD, issued by Ripple under New York regulation, as the settlement asset for credit‑card transactions processed through Mastercard’s network. The issuer of the card is WebBank via Gemini. The medium is the XRP Ledger, a public blockchain. Sources say the pilot would be among the first times a U.S. regulated bank participates in card‑settlement via a public chain using a compliant stable‑coin.

Ripple states the objective is to bring the speed, transparency and cost advantages of blockchain settlement into an experience familiar to consumers (swiping a card) without changing the outward user touchpoint.

Why this matters

Traditionally, credit‑card transactions settle through multi‑day batch processes, intermediaries and reconciliations. By contrast, a stable‑coin on a public ledger offers near‑instant finality, cheaper rails and potentially greater transparency for reconciliation. The pilot therefore signals the embracing of on‑chain infrastructure for “real‑world” fiat flows, not just crypto‑native transfers. Having giants like Mastercard and a chartered bank participate lends legitimacy to the model.

For Ripple’s XRPL ecosystem the move reinforces positioning the ledger not just as a token network but as a settlement backbone for mainstream finance. RLUSD reportedly already exceeds US$1 billion in circulation.

Technical and regulatory dimensions

From a tech perspective, the architecture involves card‑holders using a Gemini credit‑card issuance via WebBank; when a transaction is processed the settlement leg between issuer and network would be executed via RLUSD transfers on XRPL rather than traditional messaging systems. Pending regulatory approvals, onboarding of RLUSD on XRPL must satisfy custody, reserve‑backing, AML/KYC and charter commitments.

Regulatory‑wise this is notable because a stable‑coin is being used to settle fiat transactions (card payments) on a public ledger, which historically regulators have viewed cautiously. The partnership frames the stable‑coin as regulated, fully backed and compliant via Ripple’s chartered entity.

Potential benefits and challenges

If successful the pilot could reduce settlement lag, cut cost, advance transparency and open new business models for card networks and banks. XRPL’s speed and low cost benefit the back‑end rails.

However challenges remain: scaling to global volumes, interoperability with legacy systems, regulatory alignment across jurisdictions, consumer risk awareness, stable‑coin reserve integrity and network downtime resilience. The pilot is exploratory and not yet full production.

Strategic implications

The move suggests that major payment networks are increasingly comfortable with blockchain rails when an appropriate regulatory wrapper exists. For Ripple and XRPL this is a high‑visibility validation point. For banks and card‑issuers it points to experimentation with digital‑asset infrastructure for fiat flows. It may accelerate competition among networks to integrate regulated digital assets as settlement layers rather than relying purely on SWIFT‑type settlement chains.

For crypto watchers this signals maturation of the stable‑coin sector: not just trading or DeFi use‑cases, but core plumbing in consumer finance. It may also drive regulatory scrutiny more broadly around stable‑coins used in settlement.

Outlook

In the near term the pilot will determine whether the technical, operational and regulatory assumptions hold up under real‐world card transactions. Key metrics to watch will include latency, cost reductions, settlement reliability, compliance outcomes and whether consumer experience remains unaffected. If the pilot scales then we could see other card networks, banks and issuers adopt similar models. Over the medium term this could reshape how card settlement is architected, with blockchain rails incrementally replacing traditional batches.