Ripple Teams Up With Mastercard and Gemini to Test Stablecoin Settlement Network
Ripple is taking a decisive step toward merging blockchain with traditional finance through a new alliance involving Mastercard, WebBank, and Gemini.
The companies are collaborating on a pilot that uses Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin for card payment settlements, signaling how digital assets could quietly power transactions behind the scenes of familiar financial products.
From Experiment to Real-World Application
The pilot, revealed at Ripple Swell 2025, will focus on processing settlements through the XRP Ledger—Ripple’s blockchain known for its speed and low fees. Rather than reinventing how people pay, the initiative targets what happens after the swipe: how banks, issuers, and networks move funds between one another.
Swell 2025: We have closed a $500 million strategic investment at a $40 billion valuation, led by Fortress Investment Group and Citadel Securities: https://t.co/orsBjdkWbE
→ $95B+ in total Ripple Payments payment volume
→ $1B+ $RLUSD stablecoin market cap
→ 6 strategic…— Ripple (@Ripple) November 5, 2025
Ripple believes RLUSD can help make that process instantaneous and transparent while satisfying compliance and regulatory requirements. For Mastercard, this experiment offers a way to test blockchain’s potential in a controlled, regulated environment without altering the everyday consumer experience.
Mastercard’s Strategy: Innovation With Guardrails
Executives at Mastercard emphasized that any adoption of blockchain-based settlement must uphold the company’s high safety and regulatory standards. The network is approaching stablecoins cautiously—treating them as another settlement rail to be tested and refined rather than a wholesale replacement for existing systems.
By exploring RLUSD settlement with WebBank, which issues the Gemini Credit Card, Mastercard aims to validate the technology’s ability to deliver efficiency and accountability at scale. This fits with its ongoing strategy of experimenting with regulated digital assets while maintaining its global compliance framework.
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Ripple’s Broader Mission to Modernize Settlement
For Ripple, the partnership strengthens its long-term vision of making cross-platform money movement faster and cheaper. After securing $500 million in new funding earlier this year, the company has focused heavily on institutional products. Ripple President Monica Long described the RLUSD pilot as a milestone that shows how blockchain can quietly enhance financial infrastructure instead of disrupting it.
Long noted that more institutions now recognize blockchain as a settlement engine rather than a speculative instrument. With the XRP Ledger’s rapid confirmation times and low transaction costs, Ripple hopes RLUSD can become a model for future digital settlement tools across banking and payments.
Gemini and WebBank Connect Crypto With Consumers
For Gemini, whose credit card already integrates digital rewards into everyday spending, the RLUSD pilot marks the next step in bringing blockchain utility to mainstream users. The company views it as proof that crypto can add real efficiency to the financial system without changing how consumers shop or pay.
WebBank echoed that sentiment, saying banks are uniquely positioned to connect regulated finance with blockchain innovation. The Utah-based institution sees stablecoin settlement as a way to move funds between partners more fluidly while preserving trust and oversight.
A Glimpse Into the Future of Payments
If successful, the RLUSD pilot could pave the way for more card programs and financial networks to incorporate stablecoin settlement. For Ripple and its partners, the experiment isn’t about replacing fiat but refining the mechanics that move it—quietly bringing blockchain into the background of global payments.
Alexander Stefanov
Reporter at CoinsPress
Alex is Editor-in-Chief of Coinspress and co-founder of Millennial Media Group, with nearly a decade of experience covering financial markets - crypto first, then everything else. It started in 2016 with Bitcoin. Like most people at the time, he didn't fully understand it - so he kept digging. Blockchain, tokenomics, the projects, the cycles. That curiosity never stopped, and eventually pulled him into traditional markets too: equities, commodities, macro. Not because he left crypto behind, but because you can't properly understand one without the other. What drives him is straightforward: he wants to know why something is happening, not just that it's happening. Most market coverage stops at the headline - price up, price down, here's a chart. Alex finds that kind of reporting actively unhelpful. If you walk away from an article without understanding the mechanism behind the move, what did you actually learn? He holds a degree in Tourism from New Bulgarian University - not the most obvious path into financial markets, but markets have a way of pulling in people who are simply too curious to stay out. He has authored over 200 in-depth analyses and more than 10,000 articles across crypto and traditional finance. He still thinks every day in markets teaches him something new. That's probably why he hasn't stopped.
