stablecoins

Bulk micropayment to cellphone numbers via USD stablecoins – Ripple’s Apex 2025 Conference

- Julian Kanjere

The annual  XRP Ledger Apex 2025 conference hosted by Ripple took place from 10 – 12 June 2025 in Singapore.  I attended the conference and took to the stage to showcase the integration of Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin with the Mandla Money WhatsApp Wallet.

XRPL Apex is a conference that brings together builders, investors, partners of Ripple, the XRP Ledger and the broader blockchain technology ecosystem. This year’s conference was noteworthy for a few reasons. Firstly, Ripple used the event to showcase their recently minted enterprise-grade and regulated USD stablecoin, RLUSD. Secondly, Ripple also announced support for USDC, another USD stablecoin from the established player Circle – this was previously not natively available on the XRP Ledger. Thirdly, Ripple CEO, Brad Garlinghouse attended in person, and gave a positive outlook on the global crypto markets, and more importantly, the unfolding regulatory clarity in the USA and the rest of the world. And fourthly, the event being held in Singapore, where Ripple also has an office, signals the positioning of the country in the APAC region, as a key web3 market and gateway. 

The major theme running throughout the event was that of stablecoins, and how they are about to have, if not already having their moment in the sun. What are stablecoins? A stablecoin is a representation of a government-issued currency (aka fiat) on the blockchain, which means it does not exhibit the volatility associated with cryptocurrencies, and simultaneously harnesses the low cost and high-speed properties of using blockchain as a payment rail. Personally, I am upbeat about the prospect of stablecoins, and would say that for blockchain and crypto utility, they are an application/use case with a a very clear product market fit! Two years ago (2022/2023), the question was central bank digital currencies (CBDC) vs stablecoins – it was not clear who the winner was going to be. Fast-forward to today, the CBDC conversation has largely died, and stablecoins are off to the races. Payment processing networks such as Visa and Mastercard are embracing stablecoins, to capitalise on the opportunity and not have their lunch eaten. Even banks like JPM are launching their own stablecoins, and there are even whispers of the launch of a USD stablecoin by a consortium of US banks. Beyond that, and perhaps a controversial take, but I can see a cannibalisation of DeFi applications by existing fintech and corporate institutions, offering DeFi like products behind walled gardens, and potentially winning a large market share because of the trust they already have in financial systems, and the customer base / distribution i.e. they have existing customers and control user onboarding.

But I digress, back to XRPL Apex. Given that stablecoins were the talk of the event, it was timely that Mandla Money’s WhatsApp wallet have added support for RLUSD, Ripple’s stablecoin. The Mandla Money team has also developed a bulk payments mechanism which enables micropayments to cellphone numbers at the click of a button (think distribution of relief aid, micropayments, etc.) At XRPL Apex, I took to the stage to talk about civil contingencies and cash voucher assistance, and gave a live demo of how Mandla Money’s Bulk Payments Web Portal and the WhatsApp Wallet can be used for distribution of cash assistance using the RLUSD stablecoin. The live demo, using real RLUSD on XRPL mainnet was a success, and was well received, especially considering that the pilots that Ripple has done with RLUSD in Kenya has been based on the Ethereum blockchain and not on XRPL. 

The Mandla Wallet supports various stablecoins that are available on the XRPL, including RLUSD, USDC, XSGD, USDB and EUROP.

Crypto Utility, Financial Inclusion and Stablecoins

- Julian Kanjere

Is there any utility in crypto? This is a recurring question from crypto sceptics, who tend to argue that there is no utility outside of speculation. In this post, I give 2 examples in which crypto can be used to drive financial inclusion in emerging markets – particularly through the use of stablecoins (a cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to another asset class e.g. USD Coin (USDC) which is pegged to USD). Worldwide, there are 2 billion unbanked adults, and these fall into the financially excluded category. According to the South African National Treasury, financial inclusion is the provision and use of affordable and appropriate financial services by those segments of society where financial services are needed but not provided, or they are inadequately delivered.

Case 1 – Mandla Money SMS Wallet. Firstly, in September 2022, I gave a talk at the Apex Developer Conference (hosted by Ripple & XRP Ledger Foundation) in Las Vegas on how crypto-assets can drive financial inclusion in emerging markets (click here to watch). In my talk, I made reference to one of the innovative projects that I have been involved with – Mandla Money SMS Wallet – which is a digital wallet that allows users to receive, transact and store value using digital assets via SMS (text message), with no need for a smartphone or an internet connection. The Mandla Money SMS Wallet is built on top of the XRP Ledger (XRPL) which is a decentralized, public blockchain that is fast, energy efficient, and reliable. By making use of stablecoins issued on the XRPL, together with SMS technology which has been around for a while, anyone with a mobile device (including feature phones) has a means to access previously unavailable financial services.

Case 2 – Stellar Aid Assist. More recently (December 2022), Stellar Development Foundation announced the launch of Stellar Aid Assist which makes use of stablecoins to deliver digital aid at scale (e.g. in Ukraine). According to the Stellar team, cash-based interventions serve as a lifeline to millions worldwide in support of basic needs and Stellar Aid Assist – which is fast to deploy and rapidly scale to meet a moment of crisis – gets money into the hands of those who need it, quickly and at low cost.

Considering that there are 2 billion unbanked adults worldwide and that it is possible to send crypto-assets in low-tech environments (where there are no smartphones or internet access) using blockchains such as XRPL, Algorand & Stellar, it is clear that there is a real opportunity to drive financial inclusion in emerging markets through use of blockchain payment rails and stablecoins. So, is there any utility in crypto – I believe the answer is a resounding YES!