The institutional blockchain story sounds very different in 2026 than it did a few years ago. The question is no longer whether banks should test the technology. It is whether blockchain-based payments can plug into core financial systems strongly enough to improve liquidity, settlement, and treasury operations at scale.
That is the lens Fiona Murray brings to this interview with CoinsPaid Media. As VP and Managing Director of APAC at Ripple, she describes how financial institutions are moving beyond pilots, where stablecoins are gaining operational relevance, and why the next stage of adoption depends less on hype and more on infrastructure that regulated institutions can actually use.
How Blockchain Payments are Moving From Pilots to Institutional Adoption
What problem are banks and payment institutions trying to solve with blockchain payments today?
For years, the industry was stuck in what many called “pilot purgatory,” endlessly testing simple payment use cases. But that phase is clearly behind us.
Today, we are moving real value at scale through Ripple Payments, which leverages blockchain and digital assets to power fast and efficient cross-border payment solutions for businesses.
The conversation we are having with financial institutions has also evolved. It is no longer, “What can we do with this technology?” but “How do we integrate it into our core banking stack to manage liquidity at scale?”
Increasingly, institutions are using our rails not only for cross-border payouts but also for liquidity and treasury management, leveraging assets such as XRP and stablecoins like RLUSD. The opportunity is not just faster settlement. It is also about unlocking large amounts of trapped working capital and driving meaningful cash-flow efficiency across global financial systems.
How have TradFi conversations about blockchain payments changed over the past few years?
The shift in these conversations has been dramatic compared to three or four years ago. A few years ago, institutions were still focused on proving use cases. Now, they are implementing blockchain infrastructure at scale and thinking strategically about new efficiencies.
For example, institutions have clearly moved up the value chain, from basic remittance use cases to enterprise-level financial operations. Stablecoins, for example, are no longer limited to retail applications. B2B payments now dominate stablecoin flows, and corporates are poised to unlock the next wave of adoption.
This reflects a broader trend: institutions are increasingly using blockchain infrastructure for treasury management, collateral management, repo market trading, subscription payments, and collections. The question now is how to embed it into real financial workflows.
What makes an institution ready to move from a blockchain pilot to live payment flows?
The transition from pilots to production typically happens when institutions begin integrating blockchain infrastructure directly into their core financial systems.
What we are seeing is institutions adopting blockchain for operational liquidity management and treasury functions. For example, companies are using stablecoins and tokenized assets to improve the efficiency of capital movement and reduce reliance on pre-funded accounts.
In addition, for most fintechs, the biggest barrier to scale is not demand but complexity. Payment vendors often provide only individual pieces of the puzzle: an API, custody, access to a single stablecoin, or limited corridor coverage. But the more providers involved in a payment, the greater the friction, cost, and risk in the transaction. These issues compound as companies scale, forcing them to manage multiple contracts, onboarding processes, and compliance regimes.
Why Blockchain Payment Infrastructure, On- and Off-Ramps, and Licensing Matter for Tradfi
What role do on- and off-ramps play in making blockchain payments usable for TradFi?
On- and off-ramps are essential because they connect blockchain infrastructure to the existing financial system.
In many emerging markets, particularly in Africa and Latin America, a lack of USD liquidity and high inflation have pushed businesses toward stablecoin adoption for faster and more accessible cross-border settlement. Exporters in APAC often receive requests from buyers in those regions to settle transactions via stablecoins.
To help financial institutions capture these opportunities without the burden of heavy infrastructure investment, Ripple offers a “stablecoin-light” solution using Collections-On-Behalf-Of (COBO) and Ripple Direct Payments (RPD). This API-based approach allows banks to monetize stablecoin payouts and collections immediately, while Ripple handles the complex on-ramping and off-ramping conversion.
This matters because financial institutions can work with Ripple as a licensed and regulated provider. That means they can offer their customers stablecoin acceptance and payouts without dealing directly with the complexity of screening, wallet provision, off-ramping, and related operational requirements.
How does regulatory licensing in Singapore affect Ripple’s blockchain payment use cases and partners?
Singapore’s regulatory-first, interoperability-led approach treats digital money as part of the financial system rather than an exception. Its tiered regulatory approach requires stablecoin issuers to maintain strict 100% reserve backing and redemption mandates, while tokenised deposits leverage existing bank capital frameworks. This balance promotes transparency, risk alignment, and institutional confidence.
Under such policy direction, we see regulatory licensing sets the benchmark for credibility, serving as a primary catalyst for trust and long-term adoption among global financial institutions. In markets like Singapore, licensing allows companies to operate within a clearly defined regulatory framework and support customers in a compliant manner.
With that approval, we can broaden our regulated payment offerings and deliver greater value to customers in Singapore. As one of the few blockchain-enabled institutions globally with an MPI license, we continue to reinforce our commitment to compliance, transparency, and strong regulatory partnerships.
With this expanded scope of payment activities, we can better support the institutions driving that growth by offering a broad suite of regulated payment services and bringing faster, more efficient payments to our customers.
What are the biggest friction points in blockchain infrastructure for TradFi integration?
From my perspective, the biggest barriers to scaling blockchain adoption in traditional finance are not demand, but infrastructure frictions. These include fragmented liquidity across venues, limited interoperability between fiat and digital asset systems, and the lack of institutional-grade custody that meets regulatory and governance standards. Together, these challenges make it difficult for financial institutions to move capital efficiently while remaining compliant.
As crypto payments move from promise to practice, institutions that succeed will be those that offer holistic solutions that operate across assets, markets, and regulatory environments without friction. One of the biggest challenges is balancing speed with the rigorous safety and compliance standards required by traditional finance.
Banks must answer to risk committees, shareholders, and auditors. They cannot interact with technology that exists in regulatory grey areas. As I often say, you cannot have “internet speed” without “vault-grade certainty.”
The solution is to design infrastructure that supports both. At Ripple, we provide two integrated layers:
- The Vault — institutional-grade custody architecture for long-term protection
- The Wallet — high-speed infrastructure that enables real-time asset movement
By integrating these layers, institutions can move assets quickly while maintaining the security and governance required by regulated financial institutions.
Where Ripple Sees Stablecoins, Cross-Border Payments, and Institutional Blockchain Adoption Growing
What unlocks real transaction volume in blockchain-based payments for institutions?
Real transaction volume emerges when blockchain infrastructure is embedded into enterprise financial workflows. Across the Asia-Pacific, financial institutions are moving beyond experimentation and embedding blockchain-based rails into core payment and treasury operations.
For example, in Singapore, this shift is visible as payment providers integrate stablecoins into merchant and cross-border payment flows, enabling faster settlement and greater transparency across regional corridors. In markets such as Australia, fintechs are using blockchain-based payment solutions to scale cross-border transactions and expand into new markets without relying on traditional prefunded models.
As of February 2025, the annualized run-rate for stablecoin payments reached US$72.3 billion, with B2B payments accounting for US$36 billion, making it the largest segment.
Ripple’s partnerships with DBS and Franklin Templeton illustrate this shift. By integrating our institutional-grade USD-backed stablecoin RLUSD, which has reached more than US$1.4 billion in market capitalization since its launch in December 2024, institutions are tackling the US$700 billion-plus problem of trapped working capital through high-velocity settlement.
Where do Ripple payment rails and crypto processing solutions create the strongest fintech synergies?
The strongest synergies occur when institutions move beyond isolated tools and adopt a complete infrastructure stack.
Institutions today are managing the entire lifecycle of value. That includes custody, liquidity, payments, settlement, and trading infrastructure.
The most sophisticated partners recognize that they cannot rely on five different vendors for crypto infrastructure. Instead, they need a single global stack that combines custody, payments, and prime brokerage services. For example, we are seeing banks combine Ripple Custody and Ripple Prime to manage digital assets, payments, and settlement in one integrated environment.
Additional capabilities that enable businesses to collect, convert, and route funds across fiat and digital assets play a critical role in this stack. These allow institutions to integrate digital asset flows directly into their payment and treasury operations, from initial collection through to final payout, while bridging traditional and blockchain-based financial systems.
For example, banks are combining Ripple Custody and Ripple Prime to manage digital assets, payments, and settlement in one integrated environment supported by capabilities that streamline conversion, liquidity management, and fund movement across networks.
As we enter 2026, businesses are operating in real time, but their financial infrastructure still isn’t. Ripple’s unified offering enables companies to modernise how value is stored and moved, bringing financial operations in line with the expectations of a digital, always-on economy.
Are financial institutions now treating blockchain payments as part of their long-term roadmap?
Absolutely. The industry has definitively graduated from the era of pilots to maturity and scale.
Financial institutions today are integrating blockchain into their core financial infrastructure. Across APAC in particular, we are seeing real utility and innovation from a wide range of companies.
Organizations such as SBI in Japan, Sentbe in Korea, and Nium in Singapore have been using our rails for years, while newer partners like BKK Forex and iSend are incorporating RLUSD directly into treasury operations to manage liquidity in real time.
What needs to happen for blockchain-based payments to become a default option for institutions?
To capture the full opportunity, institutions need a complete infrastructure stack that bridges high-velocity payments with verified custody.
This end-to-end foundation is essential for institutional adoption. When payments infrastructure, liquidity, custody, and compliance operate seamlessly together, blockchain-based payments can move from niche use cases to becoming part of core financial infrastructure.
In many ways, APAC is leading the charge. Regulatory clarity across markets such as Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan is helping translate digital asset innovation into real-world financial utility. The opportunity now is to capture the financial flows that already exist in the digital economy and enable them to move more efficiently.
Closing Thoughts
Taken together, Fiona Murray’s answers point to a broader shift in how institutional adoption is being defined. The market is moving away from viewing blockchain as a standalone innovation track and toward treating it as infrastructure that must justify itself in operational terms: through better liquidity management, more efficient treasury flows, and less friction in moving value across markets.
That framing matters. It suggests the next phase of adoption will not be driven by institutions “embracing blockchain” in the abstract, but by whether providers can solve concrete financial problems inside regulated environments. In that sense, the real test for blockchain payments is no longer a technical possibility. It is institutional fit.
