Ripple has said many times that it plans to develop a wide range of products that will be fully integrated into its XRP ecosystem. As a result, the company has been partnering with external third-party companies to make this dream a reality and during an event dubbed UBRI (University Blockchain Research initiative) Connect, some of these third-party partners were unveiled.
The event brought together a number of industry players and speakers. However, perhaps the most significant moment, was when Ethan Beard, the senior vice president at Xpring, went on stage to announce a new line of partners who will be joining the XRP ecosystem. So far, Ripple has had $500 million invested in third-party companies that have since been integrated into the XRP ecosystem.
During the UBRI Connect event, new names were unveiled including XRPChat, an XRP centered social platform where users can share and engage. We also saw companies like Brex and Bitrue come into the fold. One revelation though that seemed to grab the attention of most XRP fans was the name PolySign. This was the first time Ripple had mentioned the name even though there was already speculation that the two companies were working together.
Some analysts believe that PolySign would probably be the biggest player in the XRP network. They argue that PolySign will likely be the platform banks will be using to hold XRP coins on their balance sheets. This could probably explain why very little information has been released about the platform despite the fact that it’s clearly one of the key partners of Ripple. With PolySign, Ripple will, for the first time, be able to give institutions the ability to do XRP transactions. It’s definitely one of the most strategic moves by the company yet.
We also learned from the UBRI Connect Event that Binance.US and Binance.DEX are also going to join the XRP ecosystem. Binance’s CEO confirmed in a tweet that XRP was now part of its Decentralized Exchange. These latest partnerships indicate that the XRP Ledger is expanding rapidly. These are actually the partnerships that we know about. We believe there are more operating behind closed doors and others already in the works.
As more information continues to become available, it is very likely that the XRP ecosystem will have expanded even further. Despite this, we are still not very sure how these partnerships affect the immediate and long-term future of XRP and Ripple as a company. The altcoin, despite its popularity, has been struggling with volatility in the market.
But many analysts are confident. They see these latest partnerships as a long-term play that will likely set the required foundation for future growth. The ultimate objective for Ripple is to bring in as many strategic partners on board as it can over the coming few months. The UBRI Connect event also suggests that the company is actually doing a good job at attracting some very good partners to its fold.
