Ripple out of the shadow of the SEC: The Middle East has become a strategic location, and listed companies have launched XRP reserves to attract investment from Saudi princes

by Weilin, PANews

the same time as the settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ripple is rapidly restarting its global expansion in the Middle East, with Dubai becoming a key landing point for its layout of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs).

Recently, the Ripple-backed blockchain XRP Ledger was selected as the underlying blockchain network for the Dubai real estate blockchain tokenization project, showing that the development of Ripple and XRP in government-enterprise cooperation, cross-border settlement, and stablecoin infrastructure is gradually turning into a business breakthrough direction for the company.

Meanwhile, on May 29, VivoPower International, a NASDAQ-listed energy company, announced the completion of a $121 million private placement that will transform into a crypto asset reserve strategy with XRP at its core. Saudi Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Abdulaziz Al Saud led a $100 million investment, showing the recognition and bet of Middle Eastern capital on the XRP ecosystem.

XRP Ledger Becomes Dubai's First Public Chain for Government Property Tokenization ProjectsOn

May 26, the Dubai Land Authority (DLD) announced a partnership with asset tokenization platform Ctrl Alt to launch PRYPCO, the first government-led real estate tokenization project in the Middle East. The project, which is jointly supported by the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) and the Dubai Future Foundation, plans to enable on-chain issuance of real estate assets on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) through Ctrl Alt's PRYPCO Mint platform, with a minimum investment threshold of AED 2,000 (approximately US$545).

The project is an important part of Dubai's Real Estate 2033 Strategy, which aims to achieve a real estate tokenization market of AED 60 billion (US$16.3 billion) by 2033. Ctrl Alt has received a broker and issuer license from VARA and said it has completed the asset tokenization of nearly $295 million in assets.

Ripple, a major contributor and enabler of XRPL, has been given the role of a technology provider for on-chain assets supported by the government, representing the expansion of the protocol from cross-border payments to RWA asset-backing. XRPL uses the Ripple Protocol Consensus Algorithm (RPCA) that does not require mining, and does not require a mining process that consumes a lot of energy, and can achieve second-level transaction settlement.

XRPL is also actively promoting the stablecoin ecosystem on its own network. SG-FORGE has announced that it will list EURCV, which is pegged to the euro, on XRPL in 2025; Braza Group will also launch BBRL, a stablecoin pegged to the Brazilian real, on XRPL, which will lay a solid foundation for building a multi-asset, multi-scenario tokenization foundation on XRPL.

At the same time, XRP has also gained the favor of Middle Eastern capital. On May 29, VivoPower International (VVPR), a NASDAQ-listed energy company, announced the completion of a $121 million private placement funding, which will transform into a crypto asset reserve strategy with XRP as the core. Saudi Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Abdulaziz Al Saud led a $100 million investment, with former SBI Ripple Asia executive Adam Traidman serving as chairman of the advisory board. According to SEC filings, the company intends to issue 20 million shares of common stock at $6.05 per share.

Middle East Strategy Acceleration: Licensed by the Dubai Financial Services Authority to acquire brokerage firm Hidden Road

Ripple's emphasis on the Middle East market is no accident. Back in November 2020, Ripple set up its regional headquarters in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), a move the company said was a possible exit from the U.S. due to the lack of clarity over U.S. crypto regulatory policies. In December of the same year, the SEC first charged Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and co-founder Chris Larsen with conducting an unregistered securities offering through the sale of Ripple's digital token, XRP, beginning in 2013. Ripple raised $1.3 billion through these alleged securities sales, according to the SEC, and Ripple said XRP is not a security. After several years of evolution and development, the Middle East now accounts for about 20% of Ripple's global customers.

In March this year, Ripple was granted a regulatory license by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) to become the first compliant blockchain payment provider in the DIFC, officially launching a compliant crypto cross-border payment business in the UAE. In May, Ripple announced a partnership with Zand Bank, a UAE digital bank, and Mamo, a fintech company, to embed Ripple's cross-border payment system into its financial services system to support round-the-clock cross-border settlements. Zand Bank also plans to launch an AED-pegged stablecoin to enhance local digital payment capabilities.

The stablecoin RLUSD is also enriching Ripple's business ecosystem and supporting the company's business expansion. Not only does RLUSD offer up to 8%-9% annualized return (APR) on Aave, which quickly attracted about $150 million in funding, but it also landed on Euler Finance on May 29, allowing users to lend and borrow RLUSD directly on the platform and use it as collateral. Currently, RLUSD's Annualized Yield (Supply APY) on Euler is as high as 22.05%. PANews previously reported that Ripple also recently partnered with Chainlink to increase the utility of RLUSD in the DeFi space. Ripple has also partnered with Revolut and Zero Hash to expand RLUSD's market coverage. RLUSD is also integrated into its payment solution, Ripple Payments, for cross-border payments for customers such as BKK Forex and iSend when it goes live on Kraken.

In addition to the payment business, Ripple is also stepping up its layout in the fields of brokerage, custody and tokenization. On April 8 of this year, crypto payments company Ripple announced plans to acquire prime brokerage firm Hidden Road for $1.25 billion, aiming to expand its services to institutional investors. CEO Brad Garlinghouse said, "Ripple needs to ensure that we have the right infrastructure in place to attract and scale to a larger, larger community. The transaction was primarily in the form of cash, XRP and shares. Subject to regulatory approvals, the acquisition is expected to close in the coming months.

Upon completion of the acquisition, Ripple will "inject billions of dollars in capital to provide immediate scale and meet the needs of Hidden Road's primary brokerage business." Garlinghouse said the prime broker will integrate the stablecoin RLUSD as collateral for its prime brokerage product and explore the use of the XRP Ledger to "improve settlement efficiency".

According to public reports, Hidden Road plans to open an office in Abu Dhabi. According to people familiar with the matter, the office will be led by partner James Stickland. Hidden Road has received In-Principle Approval (IPA) from the Abu Dhabi Global Market Financial Regulatory Authority (FSRA) to provide clearing and prime brokerage services to institutional investors in the UAE.

Sources said Hidden Road could see members of the Abu Dhabi royal family join the board of directors of its local entity after receiving final regulatory approval.

Can Tokenization-as-a-Service be Successful? Ripple regains the development time lost by the SEC's "hard control",

and John Deaton, a crypto lawyer who supports Ripple, said that Ripple's acquisition of Hidden Road is not just a single expansion, but a forward-looking layout for the integration of DeFi and TradFi. He pointed out that Hidden Road handles more than $3 trillion in transaction volume every year and serves more than 300 institutional clients, serving a bridge between traditional capital and on-chain clearing.

Deaton believes that Ripple's "Ripple Custody" custody service, together with the payment and stablecoin systems, constitutes a one-stop blockchain financial service platform. Its vision is to provide banks and other financial institutions with "Tokenization-as-a-Service" (Tokenization-as-a-Service) to realize the integration of the whole process from asset tokenization, mortgage payment to clearing flow.

According to the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the digital asset custody market will exceed $16 trillion by 2030. In his opinion, Ripple is trying to seize this dividend and build a technical layer for the tokenization of global financial assets through the XRP Ledger.

Another reason for Ripple's acceleration in the Middle East is its latest developments in the U.S. regulatory environment. On May 9, Ripple reached a settlement with the SEC, whereby Ripple will pay a $50 million fine and lift part of the ban. The SEC also stopped appealing the previous ruling, marking the official end of this regulatory tug-of-war that has continued since 2020.

Subsequently, on May 28, Ripple Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty filed a supplemental letter with the SEC, emphasizing that XRP itself does not constitute a security and arguing that most crypto assets should not be considered securities in secondary market transactions, and recommending that the SEC introduce a "safe harbor" mechanism to provide more operational compliance guidance for the digital asset market.

At the same time, the approval of XRP spot ETFs is also advancing. On May 28, it was reported that the SEC has launched a formal review of the WisdomTree XRP Fund application submitted by the Cboe BZX exchange. If it can be successfully approved, Ripple may usher in another round of growth in capital and user inflows.

Overall, after several years of fierce battles with the SEC, Ripple is rapidly redeploying its global strategy with the help of the regulatory-friendly frontier of the Middle East. As its technology hub, the XRP Ledger is taking on multiple roles from payment infrastructure, stablecoin clearing to asset tokenization. If Ripple can successfully promote the implementation of the "tokenization-as-a-service" model, the Middle East may become an important testing ground for it to get rid of the regulatory shadow, realize the integration of DeFi and TradFi, and put assets on the chain.