Ripple to Buy Stablecoin Payments Firm Rail for $200M to Boost RLUSD

Ripple is buying Rail, a stablecoin payments platform, for $200 million, the firm said on Thursday.

The deal is likely to close in the fourth quarter of this year, the statement said. Rail is a Toronto-based payments platform backed by Galaxy Ventures and Accomplice.

The Rail acquisition is a way for Ripple to delve deeper into the fast-growing stablecoin ecosystem after launching its RLUSD stablecoin. The deal comes after it was reported that Ripple had offered to buy stablecoin giant Circle for $4 billion-$5 billion.

Earlier this year, Circle went public and has since delivered amazing returns for its IPO investors.

“Stablecoins are quickly becoming a cornerstone of modern finance, and with Rail, we are uniquely positioned to drive the next phase of innovation and adoption of stablecoins and blockchain in global payments,” said Monica Long, Ripple President.

The deal was first reported by Reuters.

UPDATE (Aug. 7, 12:41 UTC): Updates headline and story with Ripple’s confirmation.