XRP Gains Approval From Dubai Financial Services Authority

XRP becomes the fourth cryptocurrency to be approved for use by licensed digital asset firms within the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).

The San Francisco-based crypto solutions company and cross-border payment firm Ripple shared a bullish development for XRP on Thursday. 

The press release revealed that the XRP Ledger (XRPL) native token has been approved by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) under its virtual assets regime. 

This positive outcome makes XRP the fourth cryptocurrency to be approved by the DFSA virtual asset regime. The previously approved assets comprise Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC). 

However, XRP is the first virtual asset to be approved by the regime since the DFSA opened up external applications per the Thursday announcement.  

XRP adoption expected to grow

Notably, this development enables licensed digital asset companies operating within the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) to integrate XRP into their crypto services. 

Also, several institutions in the DIFC can now leverage the XRPL native token to achieve more efficient and faster global value exchange. 

Importantly, the approval of XRP under DFSA’s virtual asset regime would allow the sixth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization to benefit from the regulatory and legal clarity in the DIFC. 

This further implies that XRP no longer has regulatory clarity in the United States alone but also in Dubai. Recall that the XRPL token became the only altcoin to gain regulatory clarity in the U.S. after a federal judge submitted on July 13 that the cryptoasset is not a security. 

A few months after Judge Analisa Torres gave this ruling, the U.S. SEC dropped all pending charges against Ripple’s top executives — CEO Brad Garlinghouse and co-founder Chris Larsen. 

Ripple CEO responds to XRP’s DFSA approval 

It bears mentioning that DFSA’s approval of XRP for use in the DIFC underscores Dubai’s mission to make the popular city a global crypto hub. Other countries with a similar vision include the United Kingdom and South Korea. 

In response to this, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse touted the DFSA for encouraging the global adoption and usage of XRP. He added that Ripple will press hard to make their presence known in Dubai. 

He said: “It’s refreshing to see the DFSA encourage the adoption and use of digital assets such as XRP to position Dubai as a leading financial services hub intent on attracting foreign investment and accelerating economic growth.”

“Ripple will continue to double down on its presence in Dubai and we look forward to continuing to work closely with regulators to realize crypto’s full potential,”  Garlinghouse added. 

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