Ripple Seeks Australian Financial License to 'Scale' Payments Across the Region

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

The license will allow Ripple to oversee settlement, connect customers with local payout partners, and route transactions through a single integration rather than multiple intermediaries.

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

Its payments platform will also manage the full cycle of cross-border transactions, including onboarding, compliance, funding, foreign exchange, liquidity management, and final payout, while connecting traditional banking rails to digital assets.

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

Ripple said its APAC payments volume nearly doubled year-over-year in 2025 and that it already works with Australian firms, 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 sector over whether blockchain-based settlement will appear directly in regulated payment flows or remain behind existing banking and correspondent networks.

Game changer?

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

The license is a “game changer” and “a possible template of how crypto could enter mainstream usage,” Kartik Swaminathan, lead contributor at crypto fintech firm Demether, told Decrypt.

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

“Consumers are agnostic to tech, so new products need to be faster and or cheaper to win,” he said. “While Ripple has the tech, competition from multiple Australian stablecoin offerings is emerging. Distribution may well decide the winner.”

Securing an AFSL matters because “it gives crypto payments a better shot at competing where traditional rails remain weakest: cross-border settlement, treasury movement and global liquidity orchestration,” Joshua Murchie, founder of investment firm Sympatheia, told Decrypt.

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

For Australian consumers, the main risk could be “confusion around protections,” Jonathan Inglis, CEO of Melbourne-based consumer research firm Protocol Theory, told Decrypt.

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

At the same time, Inglis noted that 47% of Australians who do not currently use crypto say “better education would increase their willingness to engage,” which suggests that “potential users still lack 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 with 8% of the general population, according to Protocol Theory data.