CoinDesk
Ripple has invested in Flutterwave's Series E funding round, valuing the African payments company at $3.2 billion. Terms of Ripple's stake were not disclosed. The partnership integrates Ripple's U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin RLUSD into Flutterwave's payments infrastructure, connects Flutterwave to Ripple Payments, and routes settlement through the XRP Ledger, giving businesses a new channel for cross-border transfers that bypasses traditional correspondent banking rails.
"Flutterwave has built one of the most advanced payments networks in Africa, and as its infrastructure evolves, stablecoins are becoming central to that story," said Reece Merrick, Ripple's managing director for MEA, in a statement. "Our investment will establish RLUSD within that infrastructure, with Flutterwave driving stablecoin flows over the XRPL and deepening its role as a settlement layer for real-world payments across the continent."
Why it matters
The deal lands at a moment when stablecoins have stopped being a crypto-internal curiosity and started behaving like payments infrastructure. Global stablecoin supply sits at $300 billion, and the use case that has consistently grown the fastest is exactly what Flutterwave does: cross-border settlement in regions where local currencies are volatile and U.S. dollar access is rationed. Africa is the canonical market for that thesis — remittance costs to the continent still run well above the G20 target, and banks have been slow to close the gap. Plugging RLUSD into Flutterwave's existing merchant and treasury network is the kind of integration that moves a stablecoin from a tradable asset to a working payment primitive.
For Ripple, the strategic logic is twofold. The company has been positioning itself as the institutional settlement layer for tokenized money, and adding a high-volume, multi-country African rail gives it a real-world benchmark that competing stablecoin issuers will struggle to match. RLUSD's current $1.6 billion supply — up more than 20% this year per RWA.xyz data — already trails market leaders Tether, Circle and Paxos, so distribution deals like this are how Ripple closes the gap.
Frequently asked questions
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How much did Ripple invest in Flutterwave?
Financial terms of Ripple's stake in Flutterwave's Series E were not disclosed. The funding round values Flutterwave at $3.2 billion.
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What is Ripple getting out of the Flutterwave deal?
Flutterwave will integrate Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin into its payments infrastructure, connect to Ripple Payments, and route settlement through the XRP Ledger, giving Ripple distribution for RLUSD and sustained flow for the XRPL across African cross-border payments.
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What is RLUSD and how big is it?
RLUSD is Ripple's U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin. Per RWA.xyz data cited in the seed, its circulating supply is $1.6 billion, up more than 20% this year, but still trails larger issuers including Tether, Circle and Paxos.
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Why is the African payments market significant for stablecoins?
Africa is a high-volume cross-border remittance market where local currencies are often volatile and U.S. dollar access is limited. Stablecoins are increasingly used to settle international transactions in the region, making it a natural growth corridor for issuers.
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Who is Flutterwave and what does the company do?
Flutterwave is an African payments technology company that provides infrastructure for businesses to send and receive money across borders. It is one of the largest payment processors serving the African continent and was valued at $3.2 billion in this Series E round.
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