Great progress in the development of Stellar cryptocurrency wits IBM World Wire.
On March 18, 2019, IBM announced the launch of IBM Blockchain World Wire a payment settlement system built on top of Stellars open source blockchain infrastructure. The network uses blockchain technology and the Stellar protocol to provide shared distributed ledgers for atomic payment clearing and real-time payment settlement. World Wire supports 47 currencies in 72 countries and is in negotiations with more financial institutions that are looking to trial the blockchain-based payment system.
World Wire uses the US Dollar and Stellar Lumens (XLM) as the primary currencies for payment-related transactions. It is a network of global financial institutions where each act as a gateway.
IBMs Blockchain World Wire could, therefore, be a direct competitor to Ripples xRapid platform.
https://beincrypto.com/ibm-world-wire-is-like-swift-a-direct-competitor-to-ripples-xrapid/