The world’s largest crypto exchange Binance is considering a partnership with Ripple to use its cross-border payment platform xRapid, the company’s CEO Changpeng Zhao revealed in a Periscope live stream on Feb. 6.
Speaking in his first live stream ever, Zhao — better known as CZ in the crypto community — provided a clear message that Binance is “definitely” looking to partner with Ripple, whose native currency XRP is currently the largest altcoin by market cap.
However, CZ also claimed that xRapid is not a priority for the crypto exchange at the moment, clarifying that there is “nothing going on right now” for the exchange with xRapid, stating:
“We’re focused on launching more features right now, so we are working with a number of other partners. With xRapid, there’s nothing going on right now, but in the future we’ll definitely want to add them as a partner.”
Piloted in May 2018, and launched commercially in October, Ripple’s xRapid product represents a real-time settlement platform that is designed to speed up cross-border payments based on the liquidity of XRP.
As reported earlier today, during the same live stream, CZ suggested that crypto industry growth does not necessarily require the emergence of Bitcoin (BTC) Exchange Traded Funds — a development much-anticipated by many in the industry. Binance’s CEO further stressed that the industry will grow as more entrepreneurs bring forward real blockchain and crypto applications.
On Jan. 31, Binance launched support for credit card crypto purchases via its partnership with payment operator Simplex.
Also on Jan. 31, Japanese finance giant SBI Holdings recognized Ripple’s potential for cross-border payments in its nine-month financial report.
At press time, Ripple is up just slightly on the day, but down more than 5.5 percent over the past 7 days. The coin is trading at $0.292 by press time, with a market capitalization of around $12 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.