Ripple partners with Convera’s former Western Union division to enable stablecoin bridging for cross-border payments across 140 currencies.

Ripple Labs and fintech company Convera announced a partnership on March 31 to enhance global payments through stablecoins and blockchain infrastructure. This partnership uses a “Stablecoin Sandwich” model: payments are executed with fiat currency, and settlement is bridged on the blockchain through stablecoins in the middle. This allows businesses to gain efficiency advantages in cross-border payments without having to directly hold digital assets.

Stablecoin Sandwich: fiat in and out, stablecoins bridging through

The “Stablecoin Sandwich” is the core technical architecture of this partnership. The design logic is: the sender starts with domestic fiat currency, the receiver receives fiat currency in the target currency, and the intermediate clearing and settlement process is completed on the blockchain using Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin. For enterprise customers, the entire process looks and operates no differently from traditional payments.

Ripple’s Senior Vice President of Products, Aaron Slettehaugh, explained the market insight behind this design: “Businesses are increasingly looking to find faster, more flexible ways to move funds globally, without directly having to take on the complexity of digital assets.”

This “sandwich” architecture offers several key advantages:

Faster settlement: settlement speed in the blockchain layer is typically much faster than traditional SWIFT cross-border wire transfers

Lower costs: removing some intermediary bank steps reduces friction costs associated with multiple layers of FX conversions

Seamless integration: enterprise customers don’t need to set up cryptocurrency accounts, and fiat in/out keeps a familiar business operations interface

Compliance compatibility: the regulated stablecoin (RLUSD) operates within an identifiable regulatory framework, meeting enterprise compliance needs

Convera: global coverage and transformation from its former Western Union B2B unit

After Convera was spun off from Western Union in 2021, it operated independently. With a transaction valuation of $910 million, it completed an acquisition. It mainly serves enterprise and institutional customers that need to conduct multi-currency cross-border payments, with a global network coverage of about 200 countries and regions and more than 140 currencies.

In a statement, Convera CEO Patrick Gauthier said: “With the growing adoption of digital currencies such as cryptocurrencies and stablecoins, Convera always listens to customer needs with a prudent approach. Ripple is a leading company in the cryptocurrency space, and its理念 aligns perfectly with Convera’s.”

Gauthier previously served as the head of Amazon Payments. His technology platform background suggests Convera is actively bringing in executives who have digital payments perspectives to drive its business transformation on cryptocurrency infrastructure.

Ripple’s global expansion pace: MAS pilot and continued collaboration

This Convera partnership is the latest step in Ripple’s recent global network expansion. Just one week before announcing the partnership, Ripple joined the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) BLOOM program, piloting programmable cross-border trade settlement using the XRP Ledger and the RLUSD stablecoin.

Ripple’s dual-core product lines—XRP Ledger as the underlying blockchain infrastructure for payment settlement, and RLUSD as a regulated stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar—are being integrated into solutions from more and more traditional financial institutions. Through Convera’s enterprise customer network covering 140 currencies across 200 markets, Ripple can rapidly expand RLUSD’s real-world application scenarios without needing to build liquidity in each market separately.

Frequently asked questions

How exactly does the “stablecoin sandwich” work?

Payments begin with the sender’s domestic fiat currency. On the blockchain, intermediate clearing and settlement are carried out through stablecoins such as RLUSD. Finally, fiat currency is delivered in the recipient’s target region. Enterprise customers don’t need to directly hold or manage digital assets, yet they can benefit from the speed and cost advantages brought by blockchain technology.

What historical connection does Convera have with Western Union?

Convera’s predecessor was Western Union Business Solutions, the Western Union enterprise-to-enterprise (B2B) cross-border payments unit. After being acquired by private equity for $910 million in 2021, it began operating independently. Its current CEO, Patrick Gauthier, previously served as the head of Amazon Payments.

What other global moves by Ripple recently are worth watching?

One week before the Convera partnership was announced, Ripple announced that it had joined the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) BLOOM program, piloting programmable cross-border trade settlement using the XRP Ledger and RLUSD. This series of collaborations shows that Ripple is actively expanding RLUSD’s footprint in global cross-border payments through institutional partnerships and regulatory pilots.