Ripple Plans BC Payments Acquisition to Expand in Australia

TheNewsCryptoPubblicato 2026-03-11Pubblicato ultima volta 2026-03-11

On March 10, Ripple publicised that it has plans to acquire BC Payments to have an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) as it looks to expand its presence in the Asia Pacific region.

In the statement, Ripple added that having the AFSL via the acquisition will help the firm to provide Ripple Payments, an end-to-end payments platform that handles the “full lifecycle” of a transaction and amalgamates both traditional banking and crypto services.

The managing director at APAC Ripple mentions that Australia remains the prominent market for Ripple and an AFSL makes the ability of scaling Ripple Payments across the region possible.

The statement does not give any hint regarding the financial terms of the BC Payments acquisition. Ripple mentioned that currently it has more than 75 regulatory licences around the world, which positions the firm in a strong position to work with institutions looking to expand into digital asset solutions and infrastructure.

The Robust Position of Ripple in the Industry

In February, Ripple got a full EU electronic money institution licence in Luxembourg. At the end of 2025, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency gave Ripple a conditional approval to become a national trust bank charter.

Ripple’s creation and highly promoted token XRP is now the fifth-largest crypto asset in the world, having $85.1 billion in market capitalisation. At the time of writing, it was trading at $1.38, up 1.24% in the last 24 hours and 4.01% down in the past month, as per CoinMarketCap.

At the same time Ripple’s dollar-pegged stablecoin, RLUSD, has about $1.6 billion in market cap, positioning it as the 10th-biggest stablecoin. Recently, it was also reported that the stablecoins generated around $33 trillion in 2025.

In January 2026, Ripple also secured a great collaboration with LMAX Group to widen the institutional usage of RLUSD.

Highlighted Crypto News Today:

Pump.fun Price Analysis: PUMP Holds Near $0.00207 as Platform Seeks Lawsuit Dismissal

Domande pertinenti

QWhat is the main reason Ripple plans to acquire BC Payments in Australia?

ARipple plans to acquire BC Payments to obtain an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL), which will help the company expand its presence in the Asia Pacific region and scale its Ripple Payments platform.

QHow many regulatory licenses does Ripple currently hold worldwide according to the statement?

ARipple currently holds more than 75 regulatory licenses around the world.

QWhat significant license did Ripple obtain in Luxembourg in February?

AIn February, Ripple obtained a full EU electronic money institution license in Luxembourg.

QWhat is the market capitalization of Ripple's XRP token and its current ranking?

ARipple's XRP token has a market capitalization of $85.1 billion, making it the fifth-largest crypto asset in the world.

QWhich stablecoin does Ripple issue and what is its approximate market cap?

ARipple issues a dollar-pegged stablecoin called RLUSD, which has a market cap of about $1.6 billion, making it the 10th-largest stablecoin.

Letture associate

Annual Salary of Millions Competing for Electricians, Meta Rushes to Open Its Own Technical School

The AI boom is facing an unexpected bottleneck: a severe shortage of skilled construction workers and electricians. As tech giants like Meta, OpenAI, and Alphabet race to build massive data centers—such as OpenAI's $16 billion "Stargate" project—they are hitting a critical labor wall. The U.S. needs an estimated 130,000 more electricians, 240,000 construction workers, and 150,000 supervisors by 2030 for AI infrastructure alone, but tens of thousands of electrician jobs go unfilled each year. While AI companies offer high premiums, with electricians earning up to $280,000 annually, worker scarcity still causes massive losses—delays on a single project can cost $14.2 million per month. The complexity of building AI data centers, which require immense power (equivalent to powering hundreds of thousands of homes), sophisticated electrical systems, and advanced liquid cooling solutions, demands highly skilled technicians who are in short supply. To combat this, companies are investing heavily in training. Meta has committed $115 million to a free training school offering tuition, housing, and stipends, targeting 5,000 new workers. OpenAI is partnering with unions to secure skilled labor. These efforts are paying off, with a significant rise in Gen Z interest in trade schools over college. However, the power demands are staggering. AI data centers are driving a rapid surge in electricity consumption, projected to account for up to 12% of U.S. power use by 2028 and raising costs for consumers. Furthermore, the construction boom is project-based, leading to a potential future glut of trained workers once building peaks, which could depress wages industry-wide. The race for AI supremacy now depends as much on skilled hands as on advanced chips.

marsbit23 min fa

Annual Salary of Millions Competing for Electricians, Meta Rushes to Open Its Own Technical School

marsbit23 min fa

OpenAI No Longer Sells Its Most Expensive Model for Profit

OpenAI is shifting its business strategy away from promoting its most expensive, flagship models for every task. Recent price cuts—80% for GPT-5.6 Luna and 20% for Terra—signal a deeper change: the company now actively advises users that many tasks don't require the most powerful model. Instead, OpenAI recommends a tiered approach: use the high-end GPT-5.6 Sol for complex planning and analysis, then delegate execution to cheaper models like Luna. This mirrors moves by Anthropic, which recently launched Claude Opus 5 at half the price of its top model, Fable 5. Both companies are de-emphasizing flagship models as primary revenue drivers, using them instead for brand prestige and technological showcases. The industry is entering a "mass-market" phase, similar to automotive, where high-volume, cost-effective models handle daily operations and drive scale. OpenAI's price reductions are partly enabled by AI models themselves optimizing underlying code and infrastructure, creating a self-reinforcing cycle of efficiency gains and cost reduction. Competition is shifting from "who is smartest" to "who offers the best value." The goal is no longer selling individual models but fostering widespread API adoption and ecosystem lock-in. By making AI calls cheap and ubiquitous, companies like OpenAI aim to become the indispensable, utility-like infrastructure powering automated workflows—the "water and electricity" of software, quietly embedded everywhere.

marsbit23 min fa

OpenAI No Longer Sells Its Most Expensive Model for Profit

marsbit23 min fa

Suspected 4th Coldcard attack wave sweeps 389 Bitcoin: Galaxy’s Thorn

Coldcard hardware wallet users are facing a new wave of coordinated attacks targeting a firmware flaw, with researcher Alex Thorn flagging 218 recent transactions moving approximately 389 Bitcoin from potentially impacted addresses. The attack pattern shows a high rate of transactions targeting unique victim addresses, differing from previous waves. The vulnerability, which causes affected devices to generate weaker wallet seeds, is estimated to have impacted over 1,100 wallets, leading to around $90 million in Bitcoin stolen. Thorn advises affected users who control their keys may attempt to move funds with a higher-fee transaction before the attacker's transactions are confirmed.

cointelegraph30 min fa

Suspected 4th Coldcard attack wave sweeps 389 Bitcoin: Galaxy’s Thorn

cointelegraph30 min fa

Bitcoin Miners Are Waving the White Flag, But Their Stocks Are Soaring

Bitcoin miners are capitulating as evidenced by a sustained drop in network hash rate and a record-steep 19.9% decline in mining difficulty, signaling the shuttering of unprofitable machines. However, in a significant divergence from historical patterns, the stocks of publicly traded mining companies have soared, with one major player gaining over 430% in the past year, even as BTC's price fell roughly 46%. This surge is largely attributed to these companies pivoting toward the more lucrative AI narrative. Simultaneously, miners face a structural squeeze. Daily block reward revenue in BTC terms has hit a new all-time low following the latest halving, with current dollar-denominated daily revenue around $30 million compared to a longer-term average of ~$40 million. Fee revenue remains negligible, covering less than one block's subsidy over a 28-day average and accounting for only about ten minutes of the network's daily security budget. This capitulation cycle is unique: miner stress and crypto price weakness have decoupled due to alternative revenue streams (AI), while the long-term reliance on increasing bitcoin prices to offset shrinking subsidies continues, with fee income still far from filling the impending gap.

marsbit34 min fa

Bitcoin Miners Are Waving the White Flag, But Their Stocks Are Soaring

marsbit34 min fa

Will the Fed Definitely Raise Interest Rates in September? How Will Crypto and U.S. Stocks Withstand the Pressure?

The market's expectation for a September Fed rate hike surged dramatically in early August, jumping from under 50% to over 80% within a week. This shift followed a contentious July FOMC meeting, where a 9-3 vote to hold rates revealed growing dissent from hawkish members advocating for an immediate hike to combat persistent inflation. The primary catalyst for this repricing is rising oil prices, driven by renewed geopolitical tensions around the Strait of Hormuz, which threaten global supply. Energy costs directly influence inflation metrics, making the upcoming July CPI report (due August 12th) a critical data point. If it shows inflation reaccelerating, the probability of a September hike will solidify. For Bitcoin and crypto assets, this is typically bearish news. Bitcoin continues to behave as a high-beta, liquidity-sensitive risk asset. A rate hike raises the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets and could drive capital toward money markets, pressuring crypto prices in the short term. However, historical patterns suggest that if a hike is perceived as the end of a tightening cycle rather than the start, any negative price impact may be brief. U.S. stocks, particularly crypto-linked equities like Coinbase and growth-oriented tech stocks, are also vulnerable. Higher rates increase discount rates in valuation models, putting pressure on high-multiple companies. This coincides with a pivotal tech earnings season where investor focus has shifted from massive AI capital expenditure to tangible revenue and cash flow generation. Companies with negative cash flow and weak growth narratives could face heightened volatility if borrowing costs rise in September. In summary, a September Fed hike has evolved into a mainstream market scenario. Key factors to watch are oil prices, the July CPI report, and Fed communications, which will determine the final decision and its impact on volatile crypto and equity markets.

marsbit34 min fa

Will the Fed Definitely Raise Interest Rates in September? How Will Crypto and U.S. Stocks Withstand the Pressure?

marsbit34 min fa

Trading

Spot