Ripple Targets AFSL Approval to Boost Regulated Payments Offering Across Asia Pacific - Crypto Economy

TL;DR:

• Ripple will acquire BC Payments Australia to obtain a regulated financial license and expand its operations across the APAC region.
• It is Ripple’s second acquisition in Australia in 2026, following the purchase of Solvexia in January; the buying spree surpassed $2.5 billion in 2025.
• CEO Brad Garlinghouse anticipated that the pace of acquisitions will slow down in 2026, after a year of aggressive expansion.

Ripple announced it will acquire BC Payments Australia Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of European payments giant Banking Circle, with the goal of obtaining an Australian Financial Services License (AFSL). The deal, whose amount was not disclosed, is expected to close in April 2026 and will represent the company’s second acquisition in Australian territory this year, following the purchase of Solvexia, headquartered in Sydney, completed in January.

Fiona Murray, Ripple’s Managing Director for Asia Pacific, described Australia as a “key market” for the firm. The company’s payment volume in the region nearly doubled in 2025, supported by clients such as Hai Ha Money Transfer, Novatti Group, Caleb & Brown and Flash Payments, among others.

With the AFSL in hand, Ripple Payments will be able to manage the complete cycle of a transaction: from onboarding and regulatory compliance through to settlement, currency exchange and liquidity management. The license will also allow it to connect clients directly with local payment partners and optimize transaction routing without requiring them to manage multiple intermediaries.


Ripple Will Gradually Wind Down its Aggressive Buying Spree

The BC Payments acquisition is part of an expansion strategy that Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple’s CEO, pursued with notable aggression throughout 2025. That year, the company allocated more than $2.5 billion in acquisitions, among which stand out Hidden Road, acquired for $1.25 billion in April to strengthen its institutional brokerage division under the Prime brand, as well as Rail, GTreasury and Palisade, focused on stablecoin infrastructure, treasury management and crypto asset custody respectively.

However, Garlinghouse himself anticipated last November that the pace of acquisitions will moderate. “We’ll probably slow down the buying spree in 2026, which makes our corporate development team very happy,” he stated at an industry event.


More Than 75 Regulatory Licenses

Ripple closed in May 2025 its litigation with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which in 2020 accused it of having sold $1.3 billion in unregistered securities through the XRP token. Rather than facing a $2 billion fine, the company paid $125 million. It now holds more than 75 regulatory licenses worldwide and continues to consolidate its position as one of the crypto companies with the broadest regulatory coverage globally.