XRP (XRP) traded 3.18% higher at $0.58 at press time on Monday after the company associated with it — Ripple Labs Inc — said it acquired a stake in a Malaysia-based cross-borders payments firm.
What Happened: Ripple said Monday it acquired a 40% stake in Tranglo which will allow it to “meet the growing customer demand in the region.”
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The partnership will allow Ripple to expand the reach of its On-Demand Liquidity (ODL), which uses XRP to send money instantly. This, the company claims, reduces the need for working capital.
“Tranglo will play a critical role in supporting existing corridors, such as the Philippines, and introducing new ODL corridors within its current network,” said Ripple.
Why It Matters: Tranglo has processed over 20 million transactions which total up to $4 billion in value since its inception, said Ripple, Bloomberg reported.
The announcement comes a week after Brooks Entwistle, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) and Uber Technologies Inc (NYSE:UBER) executive became the managing director of Ripple’s Southeast Asian operations.
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XRP has risen 159.70% besting the returns of the apex cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC) so far this year, which rose 96.65% in the same period.
The rise of XRP comes despite the fact the company faces litigation from the U.S. market regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission over allegations that Ripple conducted an unregistered $1.3 billion securities offering.
In December, Coinbase delivered a jolt to XRP when it delisted the coin from its platform.
As it faced a lawsuit, Ripple claimed that BTC and Ethereum (ETH) were susceptible to Chinese control as they are subject to a simple majority rule. The statement earned Ripple some backlash from Vitalik Buterin, the co-creator of ETH.
BTC traded 4.02% higher at $57,827.05 at press time, while ETH traded 6.41% higher at $1,809.74.
Read Next: Is Now The Time To Invest In Cryptocurrencies Beyond Bitcoin?
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