Global payments giant Mastercard has publicly endorsed Ripple's regulated stablecoin RLUSD during the ongoing XRPL Commons Hackathon in New York City, signaling another step in the companies' expanding relationship.
According to XRPL community member Lost Art, Mastercard representatives complimented RLUSD while outlining partner pitch requirements at the event. Lost Art wrote on X: 'Mastercard just complimented Ripple's $RLUSD live at XRPL Commons Hackathon partner pitch requirements.'
The AI and Fintech XRPL Hackathon runs from October 24 to 25 as a 36-hour developer competition hosted by XRPL Commons, a non-profit focused on the XRP Ledger ecosystem. It brings together developers, entrepreneurs, designers, and finance experts to build applications on the XRP Ledger, with more than $40,000 in prizes. Mastercard, Ripple, the XRP Ledger Foundation, Ledger, Amazon Web Services, and QuickNode are providing mentorship and judging participants across four tracks: Agentic Finance, Lending and Borrowing, Protocol Innovation, and a catch-all 'Why Not' track.
The hackathon places particular emphasis on autonomous payments using artificial intelligence agents, with applications potentially leveraging XRP or RLUSD for payments without human intervention at every cycle. It serves as a precursor to Ripple Swell 2026, scheduled for October 27 to 29 in New York City.
Mastercard's support builds on an existing relationship with Ripple. In November 2025, Ripple said it was working with Mastercard, WebBank, and Gemini to study RLUSD-based settlement of traditional credit card transactions. Under that proposed setup, RLUSD would enable blockchain-based settlement between Mastercard and WebBank. Ripple was also among the first cohort of Mastercard's Central Bank Digital Currency Partner Program in August 2023. In June 2026, Mastercard announced plans to launch new settlement options featuring regulated stablecoins, including Ripple's RLUSD, alongside Circle's USDC, PayPal's PYUSD, Paxos' USDG and USDP, and SoFiUSD.
