A Florida-based pharmaceutical distribution company has unveiled its strategy to integrate Ripple-affiliated XRP as a treasury and payments asset, putting the Ripple-affiliated coin at the center of a $50 million financing deal. The move makes Wellgistics one of the few publicly traded U.S. companies to onboard XRP into its financial operations. XRP As A Treasury Asset And Settlement Mechanism In Pharma According to a May 8 announcement, Wellgistics Health intends to use XRP and related technologies to enhance remittance speeds and reduce settlement fees among pharmacies, vendors, and manufacturers. Legacy financial architecture, like automated clearinghouse (ACH) payments and wire transfers, usually takes roughly three days to finalize and costs between $10-$30. Transparency issues further complicate the process in pharmaceutical supply chains. Wellgistics argued that integrating XRP will lower settlement costs and enable real-time international payments. Notably, XRP fees are under a cent, and the transfers can be performed in just 3-5 seconds. “We believe that there are certain advantages to integrating XRP and its related infrastructure into its healthcare ecosystem,” the company said in the press release. Wellgistics will finance its XRP integration and treasury reserve roadmap via its newly secured $50 million Equity Line of Credit (ELOC). New York-based LDA Capital is providing the credit facility. The company plans to deploy programmable liquidity and blockchain-based payment systems to eliminate traditional banking bottlenecks within the medical sector. “I believe that the future winners in healthcare will not be the companies with the biggest buildings, they will be those with the fastest rails, cleanest data, and most efficient platforms. We are betting on infrastructure — not inertia,” Wellgistics CEO Brian Norton posited. This announcement comes amid increasing institutional acceptance of XRP. The Chicago Mercantile Group (CME), which operates the largest financial derivatives exchanges worldwide, is set to introduce cash-settled XRP futures later this month. Additionally, Ripple’s recent $1.25 billion acquisition of prime brokerage Hidden Road unlocks more use cases for XRP and the XRP Ledger among institutions. Meanwhile, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has reached a $50 million settlement with Ripple, ending one of crypto’s longest legal brawls, first filed in 2020 under then-Chairman Jay Clayton, and positioning the blockchain payments company to once again focus on expansion.
