Ripple Taps Saudi Banking Giant to Explore Blockchain Under Vision 2030

Ripple Labs has officially signed an agreement with Jeel, the innovation arm of Saudi Arabia’s Riyad Bank, to test where blockchain could fit inside the country’s financial system.

Ripple’s Middle East and Africa head Reece Merrick said the partnership will be set up as a memorandum of understanding. Ripple framed the effort as aligned with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 plan to modernise the economy and reduce reliance on oil.

They’re basically looking at three things: First, cross-border payments, so how feasible it would be to send money between countries faster and cheaper; second, digital asset custody, particularly how a bank could safely tokenised assets for customers; and third, tokenisation itself, or turning assets into digital tokens on a blockchain so they can be tracked, transferred, or split into smaller pieces more easily.

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Ripple Building a Bigger Presence in the Middle East

This matters because Riyad Bank is one of Saudi Arabia’s biggest banks, with over US$130 billion (AU$198.90 billion) in assets. If a bank of that size starts testing blockchain seriously, Ripple probably expects that large institutions in the region will start taking it more seriously, not just crypto startups.

But it also fits Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 plan, which is about modernising the economy and financial system and relying less on oil, hence why Ripple is building a bigger Middle East presence around this. It has been based in Dubai’s DIFC since 2020 and says that the office supports about 20% of its customers. 

Ripple has also been collecting regional partners and approvals, including a Dubai DFSA license in March 2025 and approval in Abu Dhabi for its RLUSD stablecoin. 

All in all, the goal is to offer bank-friendly blockchain payment rails across the Gulf, where there is a lot of trade and remittance activity.

Read more: CZ Says Governments Are Lining Up to Put State Assets on the Blockchain

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