Ripple Can Now Tap Into 10 Million Users with New Tie-Up

San Francisco-based blockchain decacorn Ripple has announced a new partnership with Malaysian e-wallet company Mobile Money.

The tie-up will enable real-time wallet-to-wallet remittances between Malaysia and Bangladesh.

The RippleNet network has connected Mobile Money with bKash, its longtime partner that serves over 45 million customers.   

Mobile Money founder Lee Eng Sia claims that the company now expects to expand its user base because of the partnership.   

Our partnership with Ripple makes us one of the first few e-wallet companies to offer such digital remittance solutions to Bangladeshi workers, and we’re confident that it will enable us to stay ahead of the competition, while expanding our user base.

Fast remittances from 10 million Bangladeshis 

bKash — which singlehandedly transformed Bangladesh from a cash-based economy into a digital one — joined forces with Ripple in November 2019. Back then, the RippleNet network reached a major milestone, surpassing 300 customers.

Despite successfully pushing the country to digital transformation, bKash was still facing the problem of overly costly and slow remittances, which is why they turned to Ripple, according to CEO Kamal Quadir: 

One of the great values of leveraging blockchain technology is that it allows companies to meet customer demand for immediate, transparent, and low-cost global payments. 

Remittances that are sent from Malaysia to Bangladesh will be settled with the help of Mutual Trust Bank Limited, a local private banking institution.

Quadir says that over 10 million Bangladeshis will be able to enjoy seamless remittances:   

bKash is happy to have partnered with Ripple in collaboration with Mutual Trust Bank of Bangladesh to deliver a cost effective, fast, transparent, and reliable remittance sending experience to more than 10 million non-resident Bangladeshis all over the world.

Most of Ripple’s customers are not from the U.S. 

The future of Ripple and its affiliated XRP cryptocurrency suddenly came into question in late December after the company got sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 

However, as revealed by CEO Brad Garlinghouse, 95 percent of Ripple’s customers are not from the U.S.:

Most of our customers are not U.S. customers by a long shot today...More than 90 percent of RippleNet customers are out of the United States...We are solving the cross-border payment problem, which is more of a pain for smaller countries.