Key Takeaways:
French banking giant Societe Generale has announced plans to launch its Euro-denominated stablecoin, EUR CoinVertible (EURCV), on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) by Ripple Labs – the issuer of the XRP cryptocurrency.
Societe Generale Will Launch EURCV Stablecoin On Ripple In 2025
The bank’s digital asset subsidiary Societe Generale-FORGE has selected the XRPL blockchain for EURCV, following the stablecoin’s initial launches on the Ethereum and Solana networks. The EURCV coin will launch on the Ripple blockchain in 2025.
SG-Forge’s chief revenue officer, Guillaume Chatain, stated in an official press release that the bank decided upon Ripple due to its capabilities in scalability, speed, and cost-efficiency, which are attributes the bank believes are crucial for supporting institutional-grade stablecoins.
EURCV is designed to be fully compliant with the European Union’s forthcoming Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, which will position it as a highly secure and regulated digital currency for institutional investors.
SG-Forge operates under the watchful eyes of French regulatory authorities, including the Autorite de Controle Prudentiel et de Resolution (ACPR) and the Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF). The company is registered as an investment firm, an electronic money institution, and a digital asset service provider (DASP).
The bank will employ Ripple Custody, formerly Metaco, as a technical service provider and custodian for its EUR treasury. Ripple Labs acquired the Swiss digital asset custody provider for $250 million in 2021. The strategic move aimed at expanding the blockchain’s offerings in the crypto asset custody market will enable the company to custody, issue, and settle tokenized assets, enhancing Ripple’s enterprise offerings.
The acquisition of Metaco helped Ripple acquire a large number of financial institutions as clients, which includes Citi Bank, BNP Paribas, DekaBank, DZ Bank, DBS Bank, Standard Chartered, and BBVA.
SG-Forge’s collaboration with Ripple Custody differs from its other banking partners in two crucial ways. The French bank has been more innovative and embraced public blockchains from the get-go.
In 2021, Societe Generale partnered with Goldman Sachs and Santander to help the European Investment Bank launch its first EUR 100 million digital bond on the Ethereum blockchain. Last year, the bank tapped MakerDAO to borrow up to $30 million in the company’s algorithmic DAI stablecoin as a real-world asset to support up to EUR 40 million worth of its OFH security token – a bond covered by real estate debt.
The DAI stablecoin holds Ether (ETH), Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), USD Coin (USDC), Gemini Dollar (GUSD), and Paxos Dollar (PUSD) in its treasury.
One reason why Societe Generale Forge could have gone with Ripple may be because the XRPL network has historically been used for performing cross-border transactions in various cryptocurrencies. Meanwhile, most financial institutions transact using US dollars.
Last week, Wall Street asset manager BlackRock announced that its tokenized money market fund, BUIDL, will be available on five additional blockchains. The fund launched on the Ethereum network in March has now expanded to include Aptos (APT), Arbitrum (ARB), Avalanche (AVAX), Optimism (OP), and Polygon.
BUIDL is the world’s largest tokenized money market fund available on any public blockchain with a market capitalization of $517 million.
Open Interest In Ripple’s XRP At Record High Following Bullish Market Development
Meanwhile, Ripple’s XRP token is trading at a three-year high as the broader crypto market benefits from the highly-anticipated political tailwinds in the US. On November 16, the digital asset rose to a peak of $1.20, before shedding its value by 16%.
The cryptocurrency has been on a clear upward trajectory since Donald Trump secured his victory over Kamala Harris in the U.S. presidential election. The former president’s historic comeback has buoyed investor interest in multiple cryptos, including meme coins, which have led a majority of the market rallies in terms of overall performance.
As evidenced by the futures markets, XRP, the world’s sixth-largest crypto asset by market cap, has witnessed its open interest rates spike to record highs just below the $2 billion mark.
Open Interest represents the total number of futures or options contracts that remain active and are yet to be settled or closed. A higher OI often reflects a spike in speculative trading as traders place bets anticipating the token’s price to rise in the future. A caveat to this is that it could lead to greater volatility as leveraged positions amplify reactions to market-related news or events.
Speaking to crypto news outlet Decrypt, Nick Forster, founder of DeFi on-chain options protocol Derive highlighted that the recent spike in XRP futures open interest signifies a rise in trader interest and is an indicator of “market bullishness”.
The development comes amid increased speculation that U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman Gary Gensler may resign ahead of Trump’s inauguration on January 20.
Since December 2020, the Gensler-led agency has been on a crusade against crypto firms, including Ripple. The SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple Labs alleged that the company and its founders violated federal securities laws by selling XRP to early investors without registering.
Ripple won a partial court victory after the Judge proceeding the case discovered that the transactions were made through a secondary marketplace, which is not in violation of the securities laws. The company is still required to pay $125 million in fines for other irregularities in its operations.
The SEC has appealed this decision, and the court has set a January 2025 deadline to hear the agency’s final briefings.
With Gensler’s departure, Ripple and XRP may have a clearer runway to regain market confidence and expand their use case without regulatory uncertainty, which largely depends on the outcome of the long-standing case.
The upcoming shift in the U.S. leadership has crypto participants hopeful that the SEC might ease its regulatory grip on the industry.
At the time of writing, Ripple (XRP) is trading at $1.15 – up 7.06% in the last 24 hours.
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