What are Water.org and Ripple doing together with Ripple Payments and RLUSD, as of June 2026?

The full answer

What did Ripple say Water.org is doing with Ripple Payments?

Ripple said on October 30, 2025 that Water.org had piloted Ripple Payments to send funds to microfinance partners in Brazil, Mexico and Peru [1]. The release also described plans. It said Water.org now planned to run all of its Latin American transactions through Ripple’s platform, and was exploring expansion into other regions, including Africa and Asia [1].

The stated reason was speed and cost. Ripple wrote that the platform lets Water.org move funds faster and more cheaply to support affordable loans for water and sanitation [1]. Gary White, Co-founder of Water.org, said in the same Ripple release: “Through our collaboration with Ripple, we’re exploring how digital payments can help us move funds more efficiently to our local partners” [1].

Who runs Water.org, and is Matt Damon involved?

Ripple’s release described Water.org as a global nonprofit founded by Gary White and Matt Damon. It said the group has improved access to safe water or sanitation for more than 81 million people [1]. The tie has continued into late 2026: Ripple’s Swell 2026 lineup, published September 29, 2026, lists Damon and White as keynote speakers on financial tools for the water crisis [2].

Does Water.org send RLUSD?

The headline list in Ripple’s October 30, 2025 release named World Central Kitchen, Water.org, GiveDirectly and Mercy Corps as nonprofits using Ripple Payments and RLUSD, Ripple’s dollar stablecoin [1]. The paragraph about Water.org itself names Ripple Payments and does not mention RLUSD. Readers who want background on the coin can start with what RLUSD is and what it means for XRP.

Ripple said in its October 30, 2025 release that Ripple Payments is a licensed, end-to-end platform powered by blockchain technology, and that organizations can use it to send money across borders in seconds, 24/7/365, without relying on traditional banking systems [5]. Its October 2025 release added that the platform lets nonprofits use digital assets without managing crypto themselves, and that money can cross borders in seconds, at any hour [1].

What were the other charities in Ripple’s release doing?

Ripple said Mercy Corps Ventures had several pilots underway in Kenya, and that similar pilots were being scoped with GiveDirectly [1]. Those tests covered uses such as parametric insurance and cash sent ahead of a crisis. The same release reported that RLUSD had passed a $900 million market cap in less than a year since launch [1]. For the wider list of firms that carry the coin, see where RLUSD is available and who uses it.

Does a Water.org payment involve XRP?

Nothing in Ripple’s October 30, 2025 release says Water.org’s payments used XRP [1]. A 24/7 Wall St. article dated April 1, 2026 said only around 40% of RippleNet partners use Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity service, the product that actually requires XRP as a bridge asset between currencies. The article said only around 40% of RippleNet partners use Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity service, which it described as the product that actually requires XRP as a bridge asset between currencies. The allaboutxrp.com partnerships page, updated September 8, 2026, said Ripple says its network serves hundreds of customers and partners, but that Ripple does not publish one current, exhaustive roster identifying each institution, product, launch status and settlement asset [4].

That gap is the main caution in reading this news as XRP demand. The case that dollar stablecoins could carry payments without the token is set out in whether RLUSD and other stablecoins will replace XRP.

Ripple has disclosed several institutional uses of XRP: it stated in July 2021 that SBI Remit’s remittance flow from Japan leverages XRP, a current customer case study names both RLUSD and XRP as settlement assets for Bitso’s Ripple Payments settlement, and Ripple announced in October 2017 that Cuallix was the first institution to use xRapid and XRP, while also documenting an XRP-based On-Demand Liquidity rollout for Tranglo, though the current asset mix per payment is not disclosed.

Ripple’s October 2025 release gives no dollar total for funds Water.org moved, no payment count and no names of the microfinance partners [1]. It also does not say whether Ripple gave Water.org money.