Ripple’s UAE Gambit: RLUSD and Zand Unleash On-Chain Dreams

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In the dim-lit parlors of modern finance, where the numbers glow like cold stars and the soul wonders if it has become a ledger, Ripple stretches the thread of RLUSD across the Middle East. A pact with Zand, a UAE-based digital bank, emerges-not with trumpet-blasts of prophecy, but with the quiet rustle of ledgers. It is a move that might seed long shadows for the XRP cosmos, or perhaps simply reveal how fragile the human heart is when it bets on stability in a storm of speculation.

Summary

  • Ripple widens the reach of its RLUSD stablecoin through a strategic partnership with UAE digital bank Zand, chasing regulated on-chain finance as if it were salvation, and perhaps finding only a long corridor of questions.
  • The collaboration will deploy Zand’s AED-backed stablecoin (AEDZ) alongside RLUSD to support blockchain payments, settlement, liquidity management, and tokenization-a duo of coins determinately walking the tightrope of regulation.
  • While the focus is on stablecoins, Ripple’s growing institutional footprint is seen by some as a quiet scaffolding for XRP, which hovered around $1.41, up 1.3% in the last 24 hours.

Ripple and Zand target on-chain finance in the UAE

Under this pact, Zand and Ripple resolve to awaken the digital economy by deploying solutions powered by Zand’s AED-backed stablecoin (AEDZ) and Ripple’s U.S. dollar stablecoin (RLUSD). Two voices in one chorus, one anchored to dirhams, the other to dollars, and both pretending to be bridges between the old world and the new, with all the risk and vanity that implies.

The initiative aims to guide the migration of traditional financial services onto the chain, using stablecoins, the stubborn architecture of blockchain, and the delicate art of tokenization. It is as if they are building a house of cards, but with regulators watching and a mortgage of moral hazard attached.

Zand calls the partnership a “significant step forward” in widening real-world uses for digital assets, especially as regulated institutions probe blockchain-based settlement, payments, and liquidity management-like ritualists testing a sacred fire for the warmth of commerce.

By coupling AEDZ and RLUSD, the pair seek to conduct multi-currency on-chain transactions within a careful, perhaps pious, regulatory environment-the kind of environment where every transaction is reviewed by a small committee of good intentions and wary smiles.

Last year @Ripple agreed a payments partnership with UAE bank @Official_Zand – and now we extend this partnership to explore a range of initiatives, from enabling RLUSD in Zand’s regulated digital-asset custody to direct liquidity solutions…

– Reece Merrick (@reece_merrick) February 10, 2026

XRP price amid Ripple’s expansion

Even as the spotlight shines more on stablecoins than on XRP itself, Ripple’s expanding institutional footprint is often read as a wind in XRP’s sails, or at least a sturdy scaffold for its longer tale, depending on who’s selling what to whom.

XRP has long served as a barometer for sentiment around Ripple’s momentum, especially where RippleNet’s adoption grows. At press time, XRP traded around $1.41, up 1.3% in the past day.

In the near term, XRP’s price action remains tethered to the broader crypto climate and risk appetite. Yet steady progress in stablecoin adoption and enterprise partnerships could, in time, bolster investor confidence in Ripple’s ecosystem, or at least smooth the path for more dramatic headlines.

As Ripple deepens its UAE foothold through Zand, the tale reveals how stablecoins, not merely the volatiles, are becoming a backbone of blockchain adoption in regulated markets, a fact that might amuse the cynical and comfort the hopeful alike.

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2026-02-10 15:08