Solana Shades XRP: 'There Is No Bridge Currency'

The official X account of the Solana blockchain has taken a not-so-veiled dig at the Ripple-linked XRP cryptocurrency. 

In a rival social media post, it stated that there is "no bridge currency," riling up XRP proponents.  

As reported by U.Today, Western Union intends to launch a stablecoin on the Solana blockchain next year. 

The new product will make it possible for the remittance giant, which has a presence all over the globe, to boost the efficiency of transfers. 

Failed Ripple collaboration 

Western Union CEO Devin McGranahan stated that the remittance giant had tried various alternatives, but it ultimately decided to settle with Solana. 

"We looked at alternatives, and came to the conclusion that Solana was the right choice," McGranahan previously stated. 

Western Union and Ripple initially launched a pilot project all the way back in 2015. The latter confirmed that it was working on infrastructure for real-time settlements. There were no further details about the pilot.

In February, Western Union confirmed that it started testing Ripple's tech for money transfers. 

The remittance giant was reportedly experimenting with the xRapid solution that used XRP as a bridge currency. 

However, the experiment went nowhere, and there were no public announcements of a partnership between Western Union and Ripple. In fact, former CEO Hikmet Ersek complained that the technology was too expensive.