Ripple has achieved a significant regulatory milestone by obtaining a full Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license from Luxembourg's financial regulator, the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF). This final approval, granted on February 2, 2026, follows a preliminary authorization issued on January 14, 2026.
The license grants Ripple EU passporting rights, allowing it to offer regulated payment services across all 27 European Union member states from a single operational base in Luxembourg. This eliminates the need for separate national approvals, significantly reducing operational friction and accelerating market entry.
Critically, the license authorizes Ripple to issue electronic money and provide regulated payment services involving stablecoins. This directly supports RLUSD, Ripple's stablecoin, which had already surpassed $1.3 billion in circulation by early 2026. The approval aligns Ripple's European operations with the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework, providing long-term legal certainty for institutional partners.
Ripple plans to leverage this license to expand its Ripple Payments platform, targeting banks, payment providers, and corporate clients with faster, lower-cost cross-border settlement services within a regulated structure. This move strengthens Ripple's positioning as a regulated infrastructure provider.
This EU approval builds on recent regulatory progress, including a full EMI license and crypto-asset registration from the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on January 9, 2026. Globally, Ripple now holds more than 75 licenses and registrations, including a Major Payment Institution license in Singapore, underscoring its compliance-focused international expansion strategy.
