Interesting article in the Motley Fool about how to gain exposure to Ripple using listed companies:
https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/01/22/the-top-3-ripple-stocks.aspxIf you want a piece of the Ripple pie through more traditional markets, these are top Ripple stocks you need to know about.
1 and 2. American Express and Banco Santander
The reason financial-services giant American Express (NYSE:AXP) and Spain's Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN) are listed together is that they're part of a partnership that's currently testing Ripple's blockchain in instantly settling cross-border transactions.
The deal, announced in November, will allow U.S. based American Express users to send non-card payments over the AmEx FX International Payment network to U.K. Santander accounts and will process these transactions within Ripple's blockchain. Ripple touts the ability to settle these payments instantly, which would be light-years ahead of the three- to five-day wait time usually seen when banks verify a cross-border payment. If all goes well, Ripple would hope that AmEx and Banco Santander expand their usage of Ripple's blockchain to other parts of the world.
Of course, investors should keep in mind that for both American Express and Banco Santander, this blockchain test represents a minuscule amount of its everyday business. American Express is entrenched as a credit service provider for affluent consumers and businesses, while Banco Santander makes its home in Spain and other European countries. It'll be great for Ripple if this partnership bears fruit, but if it doesn't, it'll have little bearing for AmEx or Banco Santander.
3. MoneyGram International
On the other hand, money-transfer service MoneyGram International (NASDAQ:MGI) appears to be more intricately tied at the hip to Ripple than any other stock.
On Jan. 11, Ripple and MoneyGram International announced that they'd entered into a partnership to expedite payment flows by utilizing Ripple's XRP coin. Aside from this on-demand liquidity solution, which Ripple refers to as xRapid, the two will explore MoneyGram's integration into Ripple's ecosystem through xVia, according to MoneyGram's press release.
The expectation of this partnership is that it'll result in significantly quicker transfer settlement times, and in the process also dramatically lower cross-border transaction costs. Perhaps the only thing unclear here is if this'll mean lower transaction costs for the consumer, or if MoneyGram International is simply going to boost its margins. My guess is it'll be a bit of both, which would allow MoneyGram's lower transaction costs to undercut its primary competitor, Western Union.
The beauty of this deal is that it really allows Ripple to showcase its coin. Imagine someone in the U.S. sending currency in dollars to someone else in Mexico. With this deal, the U.S. dollars will convert almost instantly into XRP coins, and then those coins will be converted into Mexican pesos, once again almost instantly.
