Ripple Expands Its Presence in Middle East Following This Major Announcement

Ripple has announced it is expanding its presence in Dubai by opening a new office location in the heart of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and bringing Swell Global 2023, the seventh edition of its annual customer conference, to Dubai on Nov. 8 and 9. This expansion comes on the heels of the company’s strong growth in Middle East.

Dubai is making great strides as a global #crypto hub, and CEO @bgarlinghouse and regional MD @navinblockchain are in town for #DubaiFintechSummit to deepen our commitment to the region, announcing a new office and hosting Swell Global 2023 in the UAE.https://t.co/GN5Q0q8oWA

— Ripple (@Ripple) May 8, 2023

The conference announcement comes as Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse arrives in Dubai to speak as the keynote speaker at the Dubai Fintech Summit 2023. Swell Global in Dubai will host hundreds of Ripple clients and partners.

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, where 20% of all RippleNet users are based, is a crucial market for Ripple, making the announcement noteworthy. Cross-border payments from the UAE, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia to India make up more than half of Ripple’s MENA payment volume.

In late 2021, Ripple announced its first deployment of On-Demand Liquidity (ODL), which uses XRP to underpin cross-border payments in the Middle East with Pyypl.

Over 90% of Ripple’s business is done outside of the U.S., as it continues to grow internationally. Ripple established its first office in Canada in June of last year. The business decided to designate its Toronto location as its “key engineering hub.” After that, Ripple embarked on recruiting blockchain software engineers.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against Ripple in 2020, alleging that the company and its executives sold investors XRP without first registering it as a security. Ripple claims that nearly $200 million have been spent on the lawsuit’s defense.