Ripple Expands into Portugal through Strategic Partnership with Unicâmbio
Ripple, a leader in digital asset infrastructure for financial institutions, has announced a strategic collaboration with Unicâmbio, a prominent currency exchange service in Portugal. This partnership, unveiled on February 10, 2025, marks the introduction of Ripple’s innovative crypto-enabled payments solution to Portugal. The primary focus of this endeavor is to enhance the efficiency of financial transactions between the Portuguese and Brazilian markets.
Ripple Forms Alliance with Unicâmbio
In a statement via its X platform, Ripple declared, “We are excited to establish Ripple’s presence in Portugal alongside Unicâmbio, our inaugural Portuguese partner and a leading currency exchange service in the country. With Ripple Payments, corporate clients can now experience near-instantaneous fund transfers between Portugal and Brazil.”
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The official press release highlights Ripple’s intention to implement its Payments platform, which leverages digital assets to simplify cross-border transactions between these two nations. The collaboration promises Unicâmbio’s corporate clientele immediate benefits, including rapid settlement times and reduced transaction fees—key advantages in a market corridor characterized by strong economic and cultural connections.
Cassie Craddock, Managing Director for the UK and Europe at Ripple, expressed enthusiasm for this development, stating, “Our alliance with Unicâmbio marks a pivotal step in Ripple’s European growth strategy. Portugal boasts a vibrant cryptocurrency ecosystem, and we are thrilled to introduce our payment solutions to partners in this region. By linking our payment networks in Portugal and Brazil, we are enabling faster, more cost-effective cross-border transactions while reinforcing the economic ties between these major markets. Ripple’s decade-long experience in tokenizing real-world assets, beginning with on-chain fiat currencies, greatly facilitates international money transfers.”
Ripple has already established a strong foothold in Brazil through collaborations with entities such as Travelex Bank, operational since 2022, and Mercado Bitcoin, Latin America’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, which joined Ripple’s network in the previous year. This latest initiative signifies Ripple’s continued commitment to international growth, as it seeks to cater to Portugal’s burgeoning demand for digital asset solutions.
Adriana Jerónimo, Executive Board Member at Unicâmbio, remarked, “Portugal and Brazil share profound economic and cultural connections, with substantial financial flows occurring between the two nations. By harnessing blockchain technology, we are revolutionizing monetary transfers between these countries. Ripple’s crypto-enabled payments solution offers near-instant settlement and significantly reduces costs compared to traditional payment methods, providing tangible value to our clients.”
According to the announcement, Ripple is poised to deliver essential services to financial institutions, facilitating the tokenization, storage, exchange, and secure movement of digital assets, all while ensuring full regulatory compliance. The Payments platform currently extends to over 90 payout markets, encompassing more than 90% of daily foreign exchange volume, and has processed over $70 billion in transactions to date. Furthermore, Ripple boasts over 60 regulatory licenses and registrations across various jurisdictions, offering heightened regulatory assurance to its financial partners.
At the time of the announcement, XRP was trading at $2.43.
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