Ripple Builds New Partnerships in France and Sweden Despite Crypto Bear Market

Cryptocurrency payments company Ripple Labs has formed new partnerships in France and Sweden, continuing its march into Europe despite the current wintry freeze enveloping much of the crypto industry.

Ripple signed deals for its “On-Demand Liquidity” system with Lemonway, a Paris-based regulated payments provider for online marketplaces, and Swedish money transfer provider Xbaht, which is focused on remittance payments between Sweden and Thailand. RippleNet, the collection of banks and payment providers that have signed on to use Ripple's blockchain network for international payments, has clocked up payment volume of over $15 billion per annum, the company said in a press release.

While most crypto firms are struggling to stay afloat, Ripple appears to be in rude health, promising to add some 300-plus staff this year, a hiring goal on course to be achieved by year end, according to Ripple’s managing director for U.K. and Europe, Sendi Young. Ripple is also circling assets up for grabs in the current Celsius Network bankruptcy auction, which includes the custody platform GK8.

“It’s not pleasant to see other companies in a tough situation in this market environment, but we do find ourselves growing fast and also we are well funded,” said Young in an interview. “We are opportunistically looking at some strategic investment opportunities.”

Although it’s just one facet of the financial system, payments covers a lot of different areas such as cross border, domestic payments and retail, said Young. A specific use case might mean relying on a particular crypto solution, she added.

“I certainly believe in a future where a lot of cryptocurrencies will be commonly used, as well as some central bank digital currencies, probably some stablecoins and everything else in between,” Young said. “These different ways of carrying value will become interchangeable and there will be different use cases for all of these.”