Ripple’s Early Banking Ally Now Connected To X Money Expansion

Ripple’s early push into banking partnerships may be finding new relevance in an unexpected place. One of its long-time collaborators has resurfaced at the center of X Money, the payments initiative tied to X’s broader ambition to become a global financial super app. What once served as a bridge for Ripple’s cross-border settlement network is now part of infrastructure aimed at scaling digital payments to a massive user base.

A Ripple-linked banking partner from the company’s earliest expansion days has now surfaced inside Elon Musk’s X Money ecosystem. RippleXity revealed on X that Cross River Bank, one of the first US banks to integrate Ripple’s Payment protocol back in 2014 for real-time cross-border transfers between the US and Europe, is now powering part of X Money’s beta rollout through its regulated banking services.

The same Cross River Bank that reportedly issues the Visa Debit and Flex Cards appears in X Money’s beta program. With X building its payments layer through regulated banking and card infrastructure, this places a Ripple-linked financial institution inside Musk’s expanding digital payments infrastructure.

Furthermore, the development has quickly drawn attention across the XRP community because it creates a direct historical overlap between Ripple’s early settlement technology and X Money’s regulated banking framework. While there is still no official confirmation of the XRP integration within X Money, many see Cross River Bank’s role as a significant connection that is difficult to dismiss.

Although XRP continues to trade below 50% its all-time high, Ripple’s broader infrastructure business appears to be gaining momentum behind the scenes. A technical analyst known as ChartNerd has noted that institutional adoption across Ripple’s ecosystem is accelerating, with Ripple Prime emerging as one of the company’s strongest growth drivers.

The platform reportedly tripled its revenue over the past 12 months, processed more than 60 million transactions, and now clears over $3 trillion annually while operating across the United States. Thus, this is just one of a broad infrastructure stack that Ripples is building out during a bear market, and the projects that are being built now will accelerate the next bull run.

Ripple and XRP have been building this infrastructure for over a decade, from surviving regulatory battles and securing a major victory against the SEC to expanding XRP Ledger functionality. XRP rules as a commodity, expanding XRPFI and DeFi capabilities, strategic acquisitions, banking partnerships, and strengthening its global infrastructure through XRPL upgrades. With more than 300 institutional clients and increasing global licensing approvals, these fundamentals have never been stronger, and clarity is on the horizon.