Ripple Teams Up With Singapore to Test Digital Trade Settlement

Ripple, a technology company that works with digital money, has joined forces with the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) BLOOM program. Together with Unloq, a firm that builds smart‑contract tools for trade finance, they are experimenting with cross‑border payments on the XRP Ledger and using Ripple’s own stablecoin, RLUSD. The experiment will combine Unloq’s smart‑contract platform—called SC+—with Ripple’s blockchain and stablecoin to create a single, automated system for handling trade contracts, payments, and financing. The goal is to make it easier for small businesses to access trade finance while giving everyone a clearer view of settlement risk.The pilot starts less than four months after MAS approved Ripple’s Singapore branch to expand its payment services under a major license. The project will use digital settlement assets, such as stablecoins and tokenized bank liabilities, to release payments only when agreed commercial conditions are met. Singapore is also pushing forward with tokenization in other areas, such as issuing digital versions of government bills and updating rules for tokenized capital market products. These moves aim to keep the country at the forefront of digital finance and encourage responsible development of new technologies.