Ripple Expands Gulf Presence with Strategic Bahrain Fintech Partnership

Mohammed Fathy

Last updated 2-02-2026

3 min

Ripple is expanding in the Gulf through a partnership with Bahrain Fintech Bay.

The deal brings blockchain, RLUSD stablecoin and custody services to local institutions.

Bahrain is positioned as a “testing ground” for compliant digital assets.

Pilot projects will target payments, tokenisation and practical stablecoin use cases.

Clear regulation and fintech support make Bahrain attractive for real-world deployment.

Ripple is tightening its footprint in the Gulf, this time through a new partnership with Bahrain Fintech Bay that aims to bring more blockchain and stablecoin infrastructure into the Kingdom. The move puts Bahrain firmly in the frame as a regional testing ground for compliant digital assets, with Ripple planning to roll out its RLUSD stablecoin alongside digital asset custody services for local financial institutions.

This collaboration leans on Ripple’s Dubai Financial Services Authority licence, secured earlier this year, and taps into a wider appetite among Gulf banks and fintechs for regulated ways to use digital assets. I’ve seen this first-hand in conversations across the region: founders are keen, but regulation is often the make-or-break detail. In Bahrain’s case, that piece of the puzzle feels spot on.

Reece Merrick, Ripple’s Managing Director for the Middle East and Africa, has pointed to Bahrain’s early lead in blockchain adoption and cryptoasset regulation. Under the partnership, both sides will explore pilot projects, accelerators and education programmes, covering areas like cross-border payments, tokenisation of real-world assets, and practical stablecoin use cases. It’s not flashy for the sake of it, which, I reckon, is exactly the right approach.

On the flip side, none of this happens in a vacuum. Bahrain Fintech Bay has been building its ecosystem since 2018, backed by a public-private initiative involving the Bahrain Economic Development Board and the FinTech Consortium. It also works closely with the Central Bank of Bahrain, which last July introduced a framework to license stablecoin issuers, allowing single-currency stablecoins backed by the Bahraini dinar, the US dollar, or other approved fiat currencies. For startups, this kind of regulatory clarity removes a lot of the faff, well… most of it.

Suzy Al Zeerah, COO of Bahrain Fintech Bay, has said the partnership reflects Bahrain’s long-standing role as a financial services hub and its openness to letting global innovators test and deploy new solutions locally. That rings true. Around Arageek circles, Bahrain often comes up as a market where pilots can actually turn into products, rather than getting stuck in endless discussions.

Ripple, for its part, now holds more than 60 regulatory licences and registrations worldwide, and RLUSD sits at the heart of its strategy to link tokenised assets with traditional payment rails. The company is also set to take part in the Fintech Forward 2025 conference in Sakhir, alongside regional banks, regulators and global fintech players. Believe it or not, these events can be where ideas quietly move from slide decks to reality, even if the progress feels slow and definately not overnight.

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