Bitcoin payment solutions startup BitPay Inc. said today it has added support for XRP, allowing merchants to accept Ripple Labs Inc.’s cryptocurrency as a form of online payment.

The support for XRP comes via a partnership between BitPay and Xpring, Ripple’s investment subsidiary, and includes full support for the cryptocurrency in the BitPay wallet to allow for cross-border transactions.

The support launches with two sites offering XRP payments: e-commerce site eGifter and humanitarian agency CARE. eGifter is a site that offers online gift cards, meaning that XRP can now be used to buy gift cards from companies that include Amazon.com Inc., Walmart Inc., Macy’s Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc.

“With the addition of XRP, BitPay continues to expand consumers’ ability to transact in the currency of their choice and give merchants new exposure to a large base of loyal XRP users intent on driving real-world adoption,” BitPay Chief Marketing Officer Bill Zielke said in a statement.

The inclusion of XRP provides added value for BitPay, a venture capital-funded startup that has been long at the forefront of providing bitcoin payment services for large companies. The company claims to have thousands of companies currently using its bitcoin payment gateway, with Microsoft Corp., Shopify Inc.and Newgg Inc. using the BitPay service.

For XRP, the deal provides those who hold the cryptocurrency new ways to use their holdings. Although traditional cryptocurrencies aren’t centralized, XRP from day one was a centrally controlled cryptocurrency designed to act as a remittance network that, among other things, acts as a settlement currency for various financial transactions.

Ripple and by extension Xpring has long supported various XRP payments solutions as well as promoting its XRP Ledger as a settlement platform. One such example was a 1 billion XRP investment in October, worth $264 million at the time, into micropayments startup Coil Technologies Inc.

It’s yet to be seen whether XRP holders will embrace the new BitPay option, but ultimately it’s a numbers game for Ripple: The more commonly XRP can be used, the more likely it will find a larger audience.

Image: BitPay