Ripple Prime spots rising demand for dollar-backed stablecoins and tokenized collateral to cut FX settlement friction, calling 2026 a tipping point. The foreign exchange market moves over $7 trillion daily. Still, it runs on prefunding. Fragmented cutoffs, delayed settlement, and capital sitting idle, that is the daily reality for FX desks worldwide. Ripple Prime is watching that closely. According to Mike Higgins on X, demand is picking up fast for regulated, dollar-backed stablecoins and tokenized collateral as tools to cut those frictions out of FX workflows. Higgins, who posted his take following a conversation with risk.net, did not frame this as distant. He called 2026 a tipping point. Must Read: New Crypto Tax Rules? Ripple and Coinbase Push 14 Key Reforms The Problem No One Fixed for Decades Prefunding is the core issue. Banks and FX participants must set aside capital in advance to cover trades. That capital sits locked, sometimes for hours, sometimes days, generating no return. Settlement still relies on systems built decades ago with batch processing and hard cutoff windows baked in. Higgins said on X that Ripple Prime is seeing this shift in demand in real time. The pressure is not theoretical. It comes from institutions who want intraday collateral mobility, not settlement that clears a day or two later. As Higgins tweeted on X, 2026 will be the year atomic settlement and intraday collateral movement start moving across both FX and digital asset markets in a meaningful way. That is a shift in how capital gets deployed during a trading day. You Might Also Like: SEC Slashes Stablecoin Capital Charges for Broker-Dealers in 2026 Tokenized collateral plays a different but connected role. Instead of moving cash to meet margin requirements, institutions can post tokenized assets that settle near-instantly. That cuts the prefunding burden without requiring a complete rebuild of existing infrastructure. Stablecoins Enter the FX Picture Dollar-backed stablecoins are not new. But their use inside regulated FX operations is. Higgins pointed to growing demand specifically for regulated versions, not the unregulated alternatives that drew scrutiny in earlier cycles. The risk.net piece that sparked Higgins’ post explored how forex markets are beginning to examine stablecoin rails more directly. According to risk.net’s report, FX participants are looking at stablecoins not as a speculative tool but as settlement infrastructure. That framing changes the conversation. Regulators are shifting, too. The SEC has already moved to ease stablecoin capital treatment for broker-dealers, a signal that the compliance environment is adjusting to what institutions are already building toward. You Might Also Like: SEC Eases Rules, Allows Stablecoins in Capital With 2% Haircut Ripple Prime and the 2026 Timeline Ripple Prime operates as Ripple’s institutional arm. Its focus sits at the intersection of cross-border payments, digital assets, and now, FX liquidity infrastructure. The framing Higgins used is deliberate. Tipping points in financial infrastructure are rare. When an executive at a firm operating in regulated FX calls one publicly, it tends to reflect conversations already happening behind closed doors at major institutions. Atomic settlement, where both legs of a trade settle simultaneously with no counterparty exposure window, has been discussed for years. Moving from discussion to actual deployment across FX pipelines is a different challenge. Must Read: XRP $15 Fantasy Crushed: Charts Tell a Different Story Intraday collateral mobility would let participants move collateral within the trading day rather than waiting for overnight settlement cycles. Combined with tokenized assets and stablecoin rails, the picture Higgins and Ripple Prime are describing is a meaningful structural change to how FX markets actually operate. Whether 2026 delivers on that timeline depends on regulatory clarity, institutional adoption, and infrastructure readiness. Right now, according to Higgins’ post on X, demand is already there. The post Ripple Prime Eyes Stablecoins to Fix Broken FX Market appeared first on Live Bitcoin News.

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