Ripple, the leading provider of digital asset infrastructure for financial institutions, today announced a partnership with Portuguese currency exchange provider Unicâmbio to support instant cross-border payments between Portugal and Brazil using Ripple Payments, which leverages digital assets for faster, cheaper, more efficient cross-border payments.

This collaboration marks the first time that Ripple’s payments solution has been made available in Portugal, expanding the digital asset leader’s European footprint while strengthening the Portugal-Brazil payments corridor. By leveraging Ripple’s payments solution, Unicâmbio’s corporate customers will be able to move funds and settle payments in a matter of minutes - reducing the time and friction to make moving value dramatically more efficient.

“Our partnership with Unicâmbio is a significant milestone in Ripple’s European expansion. Portugal has developed a thriving crypto ecosystem so we are delighted to open up our payments solution to partners there,” said Cassie Craddock, Managing Director, UK & Europe, at Ripple. "By connecting our payment networks in Portugal and Brazil we are facilitating faster, more cost-effective cross-border payments, while strengthening the economic bridge between these two major markets. Ripple has over a decade of experience of tokenising real-world assets, starting with bringing fiat currencies onchain to seamlessly send money across borders. As the global cross-border payments market continues to expand, more institutions like Unicâmbio are leaning in to benefit from the inherent benefits of blockchain technology.”

"Portugal and Brazil share deep economic and cultural ties, with significant money flows between the two countries," said Adriana Jerónimo, Executive Board Member at Unicâmbio. "By leveraging blockchain technology we're transforming money movement between the two nations. Ripple’s crypto-enabled payments solution enables near-instant settlement and drastically reduces costs compared to traditional payments channels, delivering real value to our customers."

The partnership builds upon Ripple's established presence in Brazil with leading customers like Travelex Bank, which has been a Ripple partner since 2022, and Mercado Bitcoin, Latin America's largest cryptocurrency exchange, which joined Ripple's network late last year.

Thanks to its simple, secure, compliant digital asset infrastructure, Ripple is well positioned to provide the core services that financial institutions need to tokenize, store, exchange and move digital assets. Ripple Payments has near-global coverage with 90+ payout markets representing more than 90% coverage of the daily FX markets, processing more than $70 billion in volume. Ripple has over a decade of experience in the digital asset space and holds 60+ regulatory licenses and registrations in various jurisdictions.