Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice,
he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope,
and those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
🚨 KNOW: Why This One License Could Quietly Make $XRP The Most Regulated Crypto Asset On Earth.
Most people scroll past this document. But what you're looking at is one of the most powerful licenses in the world.
🇦🇪 What Is The DIFC?
Dubai International Financial Centre — one of the top 10 financial hubs in the world
Hosts banks, asset managers, and family offices managing trillions
Operates under its own independent legal system based on English Common Law
Regulated by the DFSA (Dubai Financial Services Authority) — one of the strictest financial regulators globally
🇦🇪 What #Ripple Just Got?
Ripple Middle East Limited is now incorporated as a DIFC Company, authorized to:
- Provide Money Services
- Arrange Deals in Investments
- Provide Custody
- Hold or Control Client Assets
- Provide Money Transmission
- Issue Payment Instruments
- Custody and Trade Crypto Tokens
🇦🇪 Why This License Matters?
The DFSA demands:
- Audited reserves
- Bulletproof AML frameworks
- Strict capital requirements
- Approved senior management
- Cybersecurity audits
- Clean track records
Most crypto companies fail here. #Ripple cleared it.
🇦🇪 What It Unlocks?
DIFC is the gateway to the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia — a region with $3+ trillion in cross-border payment flows annually.
With this license, #Ripple can:
- Custody institutional assets
- Issue payment instruments like $RLUSD
- Run live remittance corridors inside the world's most regulated crypto-friendly hub
🇦🇪 The Bottom Line
#Ripple isn't just a crypto company anymore.
Approved by the OCC
Licensed by the FCA
Licensed by MAS
Licensed by CSSF
And now licensed inside the DIFC
While others fight for relevance, #Ripple is building the legal infrastructure for the next financial era — one license at a time.
Ripple surveyed 1,000+ global finance leaders in 2026. A few things stood out: https://t.co/K4iSBWxMcL
→ 72% say digital assets are now table stakes to stay competitive
→ 74% see stablecoins as a cash-flow tool, not just a payment rail
→ 89% of those surveyed say digital asset custody is a top priority
Most finance leaders aren’t debating digital assets anymore.
They’re figuring out how to build with them and who to build with.
As happens in one’s life, I’ve been taking stock of my last 40 years. It’s been a wild ride. I’ve gone from consulting for the NSA to watching the early stages of Bitcoin. Then, I met Arthur, Jed, and Chris and worked on coding the XRP Ledger. Now, I’ve spent more than 13 years at Ripple.
I can’t begin to explain the depth of my gratitude to this company, the people who work here, and the community that surrounds XRPL. It’s been one of the greatest honors and experiences of my life, second only to my amazing family.
The time has come for me to step back from my day-to-day duties as Ripple CTO at the end of this year. I’m really looking forward to spending more time with the kids and grandkids and going back to the hobbies I set aside. But be warned, I’m not going away from the XRP community. You haven’t seen the last of me (now, or ever).
The last few months I’ve been tinkering on the side – spinning up my own XRPL node and publishing its output data, researching other use cases for XRP (besides what Ripple is focused on), and more. I truly enjoy this part — getting my hands dirty, talking to builders, coding for the pure love of it — and I’m really excited to get back to that. More to come on this very soon, I’m sure.
But back to gratitude — to Brad and Monica — leaders who have been here nearly as long as I have, and are the very soul of Ripple itself. To Chris, who took a huge leap of faith and never wavered. To Arthur, who had the big ideas every time we needed them. To the RippleX team, ledger developers, community members, builders, and everyone else — it’s been an honor being in the trenches with you all. Thank you for everything you have done for the XRPL. I have total confidence in the next generation of leaders and builders – including Dennis Jarosch (Ripple’s SVP of Engineering) – and far too many others to name in the XRP community who will carry the torch.
I’ll still be in and out of the Ripple office as CTO Emeritus, and as my last task at Ripple, Chris asked me to join Ripple's Board of Directors to continue supporting the company’s mission and long-term vision...and I accept!
I look forward to seeing the rest of you at XRP community events around the world.
– JoelKatz
In March, on @BloombergTV I predicted $RLUSD would be a top 5 USD stablecoin by EOY (when many in the industry were still asking if the world needs another stablecoin)...I’ll just leave this here 😁
Big congrats to @_JackMcDonald_ and the entire RLUSD team!
👀<4 weeks, and XRP is now the fastest crypto Spot ETF to reach $1B in AUM (since ETH) in the US.
With over 40 crypto ETFs launched this year in the US alone, a few points are obvious to me:
1/ there’s pent up demand for regulated crypto products, and with Vanguard opening up access in traditional retirement / trading accounts for Americans..crypto is now accessible to millions more people who don’t need to be experts in the technology
2/ longevity, stability and community are all underrated themes that matter to this new set of “offchain” crypto holders
Ripple is dropping our cross appeal, and the SEC is expected to drop their appeal, as they’ve previously said. We’re closing this chapter once and for all, and focusing on what’s most important – building the Internet of Value. Lock in.
Hyperscale Data, plans to acquire up to $10Million in $XRP
Ault Capital Group, a subsidiary of Hyperscale Data, plans to acquire up to $10M in $XRP to support its upcoming XRP lending platform for U.S. public companies, launching in Q3 2025.🇺🇸
https://t.co/XOF6XUMG4N
Today, @Ripple announced the acquisition of Hidden Road for $1.25B, one of the largest deals ever in the crypto space. But the price tag isn’t what’s most important – it’s that this deal marks a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for crypto to access the largest and most trusted traditional markets, and vice versa.
Prime brokers (along with other key functions historically managed by banks for the most part) like Hidden Road have proven themselves as *the* trusted intermediary for the largest hedge funds, market makers, OTC desks, quant traders and more. Ripple has been a customer of Hidden Road for years, and we know their breadth of expertise firsthand, clearing $3 TRILLION annually for 300+ of the top financial institutions globally.
This is the capital and activity that will tap into XRP and the XRP Ledger’s bread-and-butter – instant, efficient, scalable and low cost movement of value. Instead of waiting for <24 hours to settle trades through fiat rails, Hidden Road will be using XRPL for clearing a portion of trades, and most consequentially, using RLUSD as collateral across its prime brokerage services, including cross-asset (crypto and traditional instrument) trades.
With this deal and the backing of Ripple’s significant balance sheet, Hidden Road will exponentially expand its capacity to service its pipeline and become the largest non-bank prime broker globally.
Ripple and Hidden Road combined are a generational leap forward, ready to truly bring the worlds of traditional and decentralized finance together. https://t.co/UYOOyQ21dG
Real-world asset tokenization is reshaping finance—making traditional assets more accessible and efficient.
Learn how the XRPL is built for RWA tokenization.
https://t.co/BirpffreVg