Ripe

Ripe is a stablecoin payments platform built for Southeast Asia that bridges crypto wallets and existing fiat infrastructure, letting users spend USDT, USDC, and USDG at millions of merchants without requiring those merchants to adopt any cryptocurrency technology. Co-founded in 2023 by Sam Silver and Chuck Lam and based in Manila, Philippines, the project operates under the tagline "We put the currency in cryptocurrency" and positions itself as the stablecoin off-ramp for Asia.

The Problem Ripe Addresses

Southeast Asia has one of the world's highest concentrations of stablecoin earners — freelancers, remote workers, and remittance recipients who receive cross-border payments in USDT or USDC but have few practical ways to spend or cash out those funds locally. Traditional remittance services charge fees exceeding 8% per transaction, bank accounts remain inaccessible to large segments of the population, and crypto-specific merchant infrastructure barely exists outside major cities. At the same time, QR-based e-wallet adoption has already reached over 80% of merchants across the region; in the Philippines alone, GCash adoption climbed from roughly 20% before the pandemic to approximately 80% today, creating a massive existing fiat payment network that Ripe could connect to the stablecoin layer.

How the Platform Works

Ripe is a permissionless decentralized application that runs inside a crypto wallet's in-app browser, meaning users need no separate download. The core payment flow has four steps: a user opens Ripe through their wallet, scans any merchant's existing QR code, enters the purchase amount in local currency, and confirms the transaction in their wallet. Ripe converts the stablecoin amount in real time and settles fiat directly into the merchant's existing e-wallet account — GCash in the Philippines, PayNow in Singapore, MoMo in Vietnam, Touch 'n Go in Malaysia, GrabPay in Thailand, or Alipay in markets where that network operates. The merchant receives local currency and never interacts with cryptocurrency.

The same infrastructure supports three other use cases beyond point-of-sale payments. Users can off-ramp stablecoins directly to their own fiat e-wallets. Businesses can integrate Ripe's stablecoin-to-fiat layer directly into their apps or exchange platforms via an API. And companies running payroll or disbursements internationally can route stablecoin payouts to recipients who receive local currency, using stablecoins for settlement rails while handling the conversion entirely on Ripe's side.

Supported Assets, Chains, and Wallets

Ripe currently supports three stablecoins — USDT, USDC, and USDG — on Solana and Aptos. Near-term expansion plans include Base, Stellar, Celo, and emerging stablecoin-focused chains Stable and Plasma. Ten wallets are integrated: Phantom, Backpack, Jupiter Mobile, Solflare, OKX, Trust Wallet, Petra, imToken, MetaMask, and Bitget.

Business Model and Fee Structure

Ripe's gross margin runs at approximately 2% on a $100 transaction, which positions it meaningfully below traditional wire and remittance fees while undercutting crypto credit card processing costs of 3 to 4%. Revenue is generated on the conversion spread between stablecoin input and fiat settlement output.

Geographic Markets

The Philippines is Ripe's primary market, where more than five million merchants already accept QR-based payments and the population of crypto-earning freelancers and overseas remittance recipients is large. Active operations also cover Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, with Ripe's stated focus on all of Southeast Asia as a regional block.

Partnerships and Ecosystem Position

Ripe has established integrations and partnerships across both the stablecoin issuer layer and the fiat distribution layer. On the stablecoin side, Tether has partnered with Ripe specifically to expand USDT utility and merchant acceptance in the Philippines and broader Asia, citing Ripe's ability to place USDT at millions of merchant points of sale from day one. Circle's USDC is supported through the Circle Alliance partner program. Global Dollar's USDG is also live on the platform.

On the fiat side, GCash, GrabPay, and Alipay serve as settlement destinations across the markets Ripe covers. In February 2025, Ripe was announced as a launch partner for the t-0 payment network, a Tether-backed initiative targeting institutional-grade programmable settlement infrastructure.

The Solana Foundation is listed among Ripe's strategic partners, reflecting the platform's primary chain choice for stablecoin payments — Solana's transaction throughput, sub-second finality, and low fees make it well-suited for point-of-sale payment volumes.

Regulatory Approach

Ripe is registered as a Money Services Business with FinCEN in the United States. The platform implements Travel Rule compliance and sanctions screening, positioning itself as a regulated bridge rather than an unregulated P2P workaround. This compliance posture is a requirement for the partnerships Ripe has secured with major stablecoin issuers who cannot work with non-compliant counterparties.

Funding

As of the co-founder's most recent public statements, Ripe had signed term sheets with investors, with formal funding announcements described as forthcoming. No round size or investor names had been publicly disclosed.

Who Ripe Is For

Ripe's stated primary users are individuals in Southeast Asia who earn through cross-border freelancing, remote work, or remittances and need to convert those stablecoin earnings into locally usable fiat without a bank account. The platform explicitly notes that access does not require banking infrastructure — only a smartphone with a Web3 wallet and internet access. Secondary use cases include businesses disbursing payroll or contractor payments internationally, fintech apps and exchanges wanting to add an off-ramp layer, and any merchant ecosystem operator aiming to attract crypto-holding customers to conventional point-of-sale flows.