Ripple Pursues Australian Financial License Through BC Payments Acquisition While Launching $750 Million Share Buyback at $50 Billion Valuation

Global Payments Expansion and Capital Strategy Unfold as Ripple Moves Into Australian Licensing Framework

TL;DR

• Ripple plans to obtain an Australian Financial Services Licence by acquiring BC Payments Australia, aiming to expand its regulated cross-border payments platform in the Asia-Pacific region.
• The company launched a $750 million share buyback that values the firm at $50 billion, offering liquidity to employees and early investors.
• Ripple says its payments infrastructure has processed more than $100 billion in transactions while expanding its global regulatory network and stablecoin ecosystem.

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Ripple is moving deeper into regulated financial infrastructure while simultaneously returning capital to shareholders through a major buyback initiative. The San Francisco–based blockchain company plans to secure an Australian Financial Services Licence by acquiring BC Payments Australia Pty Ltd, a financial services firm that already holds the authorization required to operate under Australia’s regulated payments framework. Completion of the acquisition is expected on April 1. Control of the license would allow Ripple to formally offer its payments services within the country’s financial system through its Ripple Payments platform.

Ripple Payments is designed to manage the full operational cycle of international transfers, integrating compliance, liquidity management and settlement infrastructure into a single system used by banks and financial institutions. The platform handles customer onboarding procedures, funding processes, foreign exchange conversions and final transaction settlement while routing payouts through local payment partners. The licensing effort is intended to allow the company to deliver those services directly within Australia’s regulatory environment rather than operating through external intermediaries.

Fiona Murray, Ripple’s Managing Director for Asia-Pacific, described licensing as central to the company’s international strategy. “Licensing is fundamental to Ripple’s strategy, ensuring we can deliver secure, compliant solutions to customers worldwide,” Murray said. She added that the company views Australia as a strategic jurisdiction for payments infrastructure expansion. “Australia is a key market for Ripple, and an AFSL strengthens our ability to scale Ripple Payments across the region.”

Ripple already works with several businesses in Australia that use its payments technology. Customers in the market include Hai Ha Money Transfer, Novatti Group, Stables, Caleb & Brown, Flash Payments and Independent Reserve. Activity across the Asia-Pacific region has increased sharply in recent years as institutions experiment with blockchain-enabled settlement tools designed to move funds between markets more quickly than traditional correspondent banking networks.

Company data indicates cross-border payment volumes through Ripple’s infrastructure nearly doubled year over year during 2025 as adoption expanded among financial institutions and fintech providers. Ripple says its network has processed more than $100 billion in total payment transactions since launch.

Australia represents one of the largest and fastest-growing payment markets targeted by the company’s regional strategy. The country’s payments sector is estimated at $1.07 trillion during 2025 and is projected to reach $2.29 trillion by 2030, according to industry estimates tracking digital and cross-border transaction flows.

Ripple has also participated in Project Acacia, a research initiative involving the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre. The program explores potential applications of digital currencies and tokenized settlement systems within existing financial infrastructure.

Global regulatory expansion remains a major part of the company’s operational footprint. Ripple says it currently holds more than 75 regulatory licenses across multiple jurisdictions. Authorizations include a Major Payment Institution license in Singapore, Electronic Money Institution approvals in Luxembourg and the United Kingdom, and regulatory permission within Abu Dhabi Global Market. The company also maintains multiple state-level trust charters in the United States and previously received conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to pursue a national trust bank charter.

Ripple’s payments infrastructure integrates several digital-asset components designed to support liquidity and settlement within cross-border payment flows. These include the XRP cryptocurrency, the XRP Ledger blockchain network and Ripple’s U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin RLUSD. The RLUSD token has grown to roughly $1.6 billion in market capitalization.

Separate from its regulatory expansion efforts, Ripple has launched a share repurchase program allowing existing shareholders to sell equity back to the company. The tender offer authorizes up to $750 million in stock buybacks and places an implied valuation of $50 billion on the privately held firm.

Buybacks of this scale are uncommon among private technology companies, but Ripple has previously used tender offers to provide liquidity to employees and early investors while remaining privately held. A repurchase program announced in January 2024 allowed investors to sell shares totaling $285 million and valued the company at roughly $11.3 billion.

A subsequent tender offer completed during 2025 increased Ripple’s valuation to around $40 billion. The latest buyback marks another increase in the company’s internal valuation as it continues to expand its payments network and digital-asset infrastructure.

Ripple executives have previously said the company is not prioritizing a public listing, choosing instead to focus on developing products and securing regulatory approvals across global markets while offering liquidity events for shareholders through periodic buybacks.

This article has been refined and enhanced by ChatGPT.