Ripple Announces Partnership with Palau, the Island Nation

• Ripple Labs has partnered with the island nation of Palau, located in the western Pacific Ocean, to issue its first stablecoin.
• According to the Ministry of Finance, the aim of the project is to increase access to financial services, particularly for underserved communities and socio-economic groups.
• A Ripple official had previously stated in an interview in February that the organization was in discussions with over 20 governments regarding Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) projects.

Ripple Labs announced that it has partnered with the island nation of Palau for the Palau Stablecoin project.

Ripple Labs Announces Collaboration with Palau

Ripple Labs has come together with the island nation of Palau, located in the western Pacific Ocean, to issue its first stablecoin. Jay Hunter Anson, a member of the Palau Ministry of Finance, shared the news on Twitter.

The islands in the Pacific Ocean, the Republic of Palau, are implementing the Palau Stablecoin (PSC), a US Dollar-backed stablecoin project, on the XRP Ledger. Ripple decided to partner with the Palau government in 2021, with a targeted launch date of 2022. The team conducted controlled and limited PSC pilot tests with volunteers to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the stablecoin system. Palau will distribute the first issued stablecoins to government employees.

Palau does not have a functional central bank. The US Dollar is widely accepted as a payment method in the country. According to the Ministry of Finance, the aim of the project is to increase access to financial services, particularly for underserved communities and socio-economic groups. It also aims to reduce payment costs nationwide.

Brooks Entwistle, Senior Vice President for Global Customer Success and Executive Director of Ripple APAC and MENA, had previously stated in an interview in February that the organization was in discussions with over 20 governments regarding Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) projects. However, Ripple’s stablecoin project in Palau had started much earlier in 2021.

Ripple Makes Progress Following Court Victory

Just two weeks ago, Ripple achieved a partial victory in its legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The court ruled that the institutional sales of XRP tokens constituted securities violations, but the programmatic XRP tokens traded on crypto exchanges did not constitute securities violations.

The court decision provided reassurance to crypto companies in the U.S. that not all was lost. The decision immediately sparked a price rally among the tokens. XRP rose by 73% on the day the decision was announced, reaching $0.8171. At the time of writing, it was trading at $0.699.