Stablecoins Finally Get a Last Mile: RLUSD Now Lands in 190 Countries as Plain Bank Money 🚀

Holders of Ripple USD (RLUSD) can now pay suppliers, staff and landlords worldwide directly from self-custodial wallets through TrustLinq, with recipients receiving ordinary bank transfers in their local currency, the Swiss-regulated crypto-to-fiat platform announced on October 13th, 2026, from Steinhausen, Switzerland. The expansion of the partnership between TrustLinq CH AG and Ripple enables third-party fiat payments funded from RLUSD, the US dollar-denominated stablecoin issued by Ripple under a New York Department of Financial Services trust charter.

TrustLinq clients holding RLUSD (ERC-20) can now pay any third-party bank account in more than 190 countries and over 80 currencies directly from self-custodial holdings, with recipients receiving standard bank transfers in their local currency. The expansion builds on the companies' existing collaboration, under which Ripple Payments settlement infrastructure powers TrustLinq's global fiat payouts. RLUSD was designed for enterprise-grade payments and institutional use, and the new capability gives holders a direct route into real-world settlement. Funds remain in the client's own wallet, connected to a dedicated payment vault, until the moment a payment executes. TrustLinq converts the required amount and delivers a bank transfer to the recipient through SEPA, Faster Payments, ACH, local payment corridors or SWIFT, with most transfers arriving the same or next business day. Recipients need only a bank account and do not interact with cryptocurrency at any point.

The capability targets a structural gap in stablecoin usage. Analysis published by McKinsey and Artemis Analytics in January 2026 found that of approximately USD 35 trillion moving over stablecoin rails annually, roughly USD 390 billion, about one percent, constituted real-world payments such as payroll, invoices and remittances, with business-to-business payments the fastest-growing segment. TrustLinq's model settles obligations in fiat directly from self-custody, rather than requiring holders to sell through an exchange and transfer funds onward from a personal bank account. "Stablecoin holders have never lacked ways to trade; they have lacked ways to pay," said Lili Metodieva, Co-Founder of TrustLinq. "RLUSD was built as regulated, enterprise-grade digital money, and this expansion gives it the last mile: a supplier invoice in Vietnam, a salary in Germany, rent in Dubai, paid straight from self-custody and arriving as ordinary bank transfers. Swiss regulation is what makes that possible at global scale."

TrustLinq operates as a Swiss financial intermediary subject to anti-money-laundering supervision through SO-FIT, a self-regulatory organisation recognised by FINMA, which gives recipient banks a regulated Swiss counterparty on every transfer. Clients verify once at onboarding; from then on, initiating a payment takes minutes, with the platform supporting payments funded from USDT (ERC-20 and TRC-20) and additional assets alongside RLUSD.