Ripple confirms that XRP ODL payments are now available in India.

Ripple Labs has confirmed that its On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) payment solution is now live in India. The Silicon Valley-based tech company made this known in a recently published document titled “Quick Guide: Streamline Global Treasury Flows.”

In the document, Ripple pointed out that the payments solution “offers optimized liquidity for cross-border payments-including complex corridors like Brazil, Mexico, India, and Southeast Asia- by virtue of its strong global payments network and ability to use XRP as a neutral bridge for various fiat currencies pairs.”

The development is surprising, given that Ripple did not officially announce ODL’s presence in India.

Meanwhile, XRP did not react positively to the news. XRP has been down 1.4% in the past 24 hours. The cryptocurrency has also plunged 11% in the past week. At press time, XRP is trading at $0.45, according to Coingecko data.

Ripple’s operations in India

It is worth noting that Ripple has been making plans to launch the payment solution in India since 2020. The plan was disclosed by Navin Gupta, Ripple’s Managing Director for South Asia & MENA.

“Ripple is keen to introduce the ODL (On Demand Liquidity) solution to the India market to make remittances faster, easier, better, and cheaper through the use of digital assets,” said Gupta.

It is noteworthy that Ripple has been operating in India since 2017, especially in the Bengaluru and Mumbai cities. As reported earlier, Ripple opened a regional office in the city of Bengaluru.

Since launching in India, several financial institutions, including Yes Bank and Axis Bank, have collaborated with Ripple to utilize the company’s cross-border payment network, RippleNet.

Despite Ripple’s growth in India, it refused to launch ODL, a payment solution that leverages XRP for cross-border settlements, due to the country’s regulatory landscape.

Recall that India’s central bank, in 2018, prohibited banks from dealing with cryptocurrency exchanges, a move that stifled crypto trading activities in the country. Two years later, the Supreme Court overturned the decision imposed by the Reserve Bank of India.

Following the Supreme Court’s ruling, Ripple intensified efforts to roll out the ODL solution in India.

Maestro