Ripple secures expanded MAS licence to scale regulated crypto payment and custody services
Singapore’s Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has approved an expanded licence for Ripple, widening the firm’s regulated crypto activities in the city-state. The licence extension covers custody, exchange and broader payment services for Ripple’s digital assets — including XRP and related liquidity tokens — enabling Ripple to scale institutional services, support cross-border payments and deepen partnerships with businesses and financial institutions under MAS oversight. The approval follows Ripple’s push for clearer regulatory standing after earlier legal disputes in other jurisdictions and reinforces Singapore’s role as a regional crypto hub. For traders, the MAS approval increases regulatory clarity and could boost institutional and merchant use of Ripple’s payment rails, potentially raising on- and off-exchange demand for XRP. Short-term price moves may be driven by sentiment and speculation; longer-term impact depends on measurable growth in adoption, transaction volumes and liquidity for Ripple-linked services.
Bullish
The expanded MAS licence increases regulatory certainty for Ripple’s operations in a major Asian financial hub. Regulatory clarity typically reduces institutional onboarding friction and can accelerate merchant and bank integrations with Ripple’s payment rails. That raises the potential for higher on-chain transaction volumes and greater demand for XRP and related liquidity tokens used in settlement or corridor operations. Short-term price effects are likely to be sentiment-driven: an initial bullish spike on positive headlines followed by consolidation. Medium to long term, if the licence drives measurable adoption — more institutional flows, payment volume growth, and tighter liquidity — it should be bullish for XRP as utility and demand increase. The actual price outcome depends on execution: product rollouts, partner wins, and transaction volumes. Absent concrete adoption metrics, the market may remain volatile and react to broader macro and crypto-sector conditions.