Thunes

Thunes and Ripple Expand Global Partnership to Transform Cross-Border Payments

Thunes expands partnership with Ripple, combining blockchain-powered payments with global infrastructure to transform cross-border transactions. Enterprise customers gain easier access to new currencies and countries as $70B+ processing volume meets real-time settlement.

The Ripple Effect

02 Sep 2025 — 4 min read

Money movement platform Thunes has significantly expanded its partnership with blockchain infrastructure leader Ripple, marking a pivotal development in the evolution of global cross-border payments. The collaboration, announced Tuesday (September 2), builds on their successful relationship established in 2020 and combines Thunes' Direct Global Network with Ripple's blockchain-powered payment solutions to enhance global payment capabilities for enterprise customers.

The partnership represents a major step forward in addressing the persistent challenges that plague international money transfers, where traditional methods often take days to complete and carry substantial fees.

Bridging Traditional Finance and Digital Assets

This expanded alliance positions Thunes as a bridge between traditional finance and the digital assets ecosystem, with President and COO Chloe Mayenobe stating:

"We are in a prime position to bridge these two worlds and drive the future of digital assets, and our alliance with Ripple underscores this." The partnership directly addresses the growing demand for digital financial services by integrating blockchain and digital asset technologies into Thunes' extensive payment infrastructure.

Under the new arrangement, Ripple's enterprise customers can now withdraw funds more easily in new currencies and countries, significantly enhancing their global payment capabilities. This development solves a longstanding challenge in the crypto space where converting digital assets back to local currencies has often been complex and costly.

Massive Scale and Global Reach

The numbers behind this partnership are impressive. Ripple Payments currently boasts near-global coverage with more than 90 payout markets representing over 90% coverage of daily foreign exchange markets, processing upwards of $70 billion in volume. Meanwhile, Thunes' Direct Global Network specializes in ensuring real-time payouts in local currencies and facilitates "last-mile" delivery in regions with limited banking infrastructure.

The partnership enhances the reach and efficiency of Thunes' network while the company utilizes Ripple Payments to enhance its SmartX Treasury System. This integration creates a more seamless experience for businesses and end users seeking fast, secure, and accessible financial services across borders.

Market Context and Timing

The announcement comes at a crucial time for the payments industry. Recent research highlights significant challenges in cross-border transactions, with 72% of merchants experiencing higher rates of failed payments in international transactions compared to domestic ones. The study reveals that 99% of cross-border shoppers expect to pay using their preferred payment methods, while 94% expect to pay in local currencies.

These pain points underscore why partnerships like Thunes-Ripple are essential for the future of global commerce. Traditional international payments through systems like SWIFT can take up to five days and cost $26-$50 per transfer, while blockchain-powered solutions can complete similar transactions in seconds for fractions of a cent.

XRP and Ripple Analysis: Strategic Implications

This partnership expansion carries significant implications for XRP and Ripple's broader ecosystem. The announcement reinforces XRP's utility in real-world payment scenarios, particularly as institutions seek alternatives to costly and slow traditional cross-border payment methods.

XRP Price Potential: XRP currently trades at $2.82 with a market capitalization near $167.5 billion, ranking as the third-largest cryptocurrency. The expanded Thunes partnership adds to a growing list of institutional adoption drivers that could support XRP's price momentum. Analysts suggest that increased utility through partnerships like this could drive consistent demand for the token, creating a foundation different from pure speculation.

Ripple's Business Operations: The partnership directly supports Ripple's strategy to expand its enterprise customer base and demonstrate real-world utility for its payment solutions. As Fiona Murray, Managing Director for Asia Pacific at Ripple, noted: "By combining Thunes' extensive and trusted Direct Global Network with Ripple's digital asset infrastructure, we are enhancing payment speed, accessibility, and compliance across regions."

Legal Standing: With regulatory clarity achieved through the SEC case resolution, XRP now has "definitive legal clarity" and is "officially not a security when sold on public exchanges." This legal certainty enables partnerships like the one with Thunes to proceed without regulatory uncertainty that previously constrained growth.

Partnership Opportunities: The Thunes expansion demonstrates Ripple's ability to build long-term relationships with established financial infrastructure providers. Previous collaborations, including Thunes' partnership with Attijariwafa Bank in Morocco facilitated through RippleNet, show the scalability of this approach across different markets and regulatory environments.

Adoption Prospects: With SWIFT conducting live trials with Ripple's XRP Ledger and Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse suggesting XRP could capture up to 14% of SWIFT's global liquidity by 2030, partnerships like Thunes represent building blocks toward broader institutional adoption.

Looking Forward

The Thunes-Ripple partnership expansion signals a maturation of blockchain-powered payment solutions from experimental technology to practical infrastructure. As demand for faster, cheaper international payments continues to grow, strategic alliances like this one position both companies to capture market share in the evolving global payments landscape.

The partnership supports "the growing demand for innovative, blockchain-powered financial solutions globally," suggesting this expansion is just one part of a broader transformation in how money moves around the world. For XRP holders and Ripple watchers, developments like these demonstrate the ongoing transition from regulatory battles to business execution and real-world utility deployment.

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