Ripple Seeks Australian Financial License to ‘Scale’ Payments Across the Region

Ripple said Tuesday it is seeking an Australian financial services license through its acquisition of BC Payments, a move that would place the crypto company within Australia’s regulated financial services framework.

The license allows Ripple to oversee settlements, connect customers to local payout partners, and route transactions through a single integration instead of multiple intermediaries.

“Australia is an important market for Ripple,” and the license will help strengthen its “capacity to scale,” said Fiona Murray, managing director for Asia Pacific at Ripple, in a statement statement.

The payments platform will also manage the full cycle of cross-border transactions, including onboarding, compliance, financing, foreign exchange, liquidity management and final payout, while connecting traditional bank rails with digital assets.

If approved, it would also expand Ripple’s regulated footprint in the Asia Pacific and add to the company’s more than 75 regulatory licenses worldwide.

Ripple said APAC payment volume will almost double year-on-year by 2025 and it is already working with Australian companies including Hai Ha Money Transfer, Stables, law firm Caleb & Brown, Flash Payments and crypto exchange Independent Reserve.

But even with that growth, the expansion raises a broader question for the industry about whether blockchain-based settlement will emerge directly into regulated payment flows or remain behind existing banking and correspondent networks.

Game changer?

Local observers say the license could help crypto payments infrastructure gain traction in regulated finance, although adoption will depend on regulation, competition and clear advantages over existing rails.

The license is a “game changer” and “a potential template for how crypto could enter mainstream use,” Kartik Swaminathan, lead contributor at crypto-fintech firm Demether, told me. Declutter.

While it brings legitimacy, the way the Treasury and Australian Securities and Investments Commission view crypto “may slowly evolve and crystallize into clear processes for Ripple to follow,” Swaminathan said.

“Consumers are agnostic to technology, so new products must be faster and/or cheaper to be successful,” he said. “While Ripple has the technology, there is competition from multiple Australian stablecoin offerings. Distribution may well decide the winner.”

Securing an AFSL matters because “it gives crypto payments a better chance to compete where traditional rails remain weakest: cross-border settlement, treasury movements and global liquidity orchestration,” Joshua Murchie, founder of investment firm Sympatheia, told me. Declutter.

“It will not replace Australia’s domestic payments infrastructure tomorrow because the country already has strong local rail networks,” Murchie said. “But it does strengthen the case for a regulated, blockchain-based payment infrastructure as a serious institutional alternative in more frictional parts of the market.”

For Australian consumers, the biggest risk could be “confusion around protection measures”, Jonathan Inglis, CEO of Melbourne-based consumer research firm Protocol Theory, told me. Declutter.

The license could “accelerate the integration of crypto-based payment rails into mainstream finance,” with 35% of adults in the country saying they are interested in crypto trading through their main bank, Inglis said.

At the same time, Inglis noted that 47% of Australians not currently using crypto say “better education would increase their willingness to participate,” suggesting “potential users still do not have a clear understanding of the products entering the financial system.”

Friction remains between crypto services and banks, with 12% of Australian crypto users reporting banking restrictions, compared to 8% of the general population, according to data from Protocol Theory.