RLUSD
RLUSD (Ripple USD) is a United States dollar–pegged stablecoin issued by Standard Custody & Trust Company, a Ripple-owned trust company chartered by the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).[1][4] Launched on 17 December 2024 on the XRP Ledger and Ethereum, it is positioned as an institutional stablecoin for cross-border payments and liquidity, complementary to XRP in Ripple’s product suite.[1][2][5]
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Overview
RLUSD (Ripple USD) is a fiat‑backed stablecoin created by Ripple to support institutional payments, liquidity management, and decentralized finance (DeFi) activity.[2][5] It was first introduced in June 2024 and entered private beta testing on the XRP Ledger and Ethereum mainnet in August 2024.[2] Ripple has stated that RLUSD targets large financial institutions and payment providers, emphasizing compliance, regulatory oversight, and integration into existing institutional workflows.[2][5]
Ripple positions RLUSD as complementary to XRP: RLUSD provides a dollar‑denominated settlement asset, while XRP is used as a bridge asset and source of on‑demand liquidity.[2] RLUSD is issued natively on the XRP Ledger and Ethereum and is available on additional networks via the Wormhole cross‑chain messaging protocol, enabling transfers and liquidity provision on more than 40 supported blockchains.[1][5] Its primary use cases include institutional cross‑border payments, treasury and collateral management, on and off‑ramps for digital‑asset trading venues, and participation in DeFi protocols on supported chains.[5]
History
RLUSD was first introduced by Ripple in June 2024, with the company outlining plans for a fiat‑backed stablecoin issued under a New York trust‑company license.[2] In August 2024, RLUSD entered private beta testing on the XRP Ledger and Ethereum mainnet, ahead of a full public launch.[2]
RLUSD was officially launched on December 17, 2024, on the XRP Ledger and Ethereum.[1] By early June 2025, the circulating supply had grown to approximately $320.6 million, a roughly sixfold increase from the initial float at launch, with weekly transfer volumes approaching prior peaks above $700 million.[1] In parallel, Ripple continued to position RLUSD within its institutional payments stack and announced plans to broaden chain support and DeFi integrations over time.[2]
In August 2025, Ripple and SBI Holdings signed a memorandum of understanding to bring RLUSD to the Japanese market by early 2026, with distribution through SBI VC Trade, SBI’s licensed crypto‑asset exchange.[3] Limited rollout of RLUSD to select Japanese users began in March 2026 in coordination with SBI VC Trade while regulatory approvals were being finalized.[8] On June 25, 2026, Japan’s Financial Services Agency (JFSA) granted RLUSD Type 4 electronic payment instrument status, enabling a broader launch via SBI VC Trade as Japan’s first foreign USD stablecoin approved under this regime.[7][8] By the end of the second quarter of 2026, RLUSD had expanded across North America, the Middle East, and Asia, with a reported supply of approximately $1.5–1.54 billion, rising from an initial float at launch to more than $320 million by June 2025 and reaching an on‑chain all‑time high of about $1.7 billion in May 2026.[1][5] Over the same period, RLUSD expanded from its initial XRP Ledger and Ethereum deployments to multichain availability via the Wormhole protocol, enabling transfers and liquidity provision on more than 40 interoperable networks.[5]
Design and Mechanism
RLUSD is designed to maintain a 1:1 peg with the US dollar, backed by reserves consisting of US dollar cash deposits, short‑term US government treasuries, and other cash‑equivalent instruments.[2] The reserves are held in segregated accounts at Bank of New York Mellon under the custody of Standard Custody & Trust Company, which issues and redeems RLUSD under its New York trust‑company charter.[4] A third‑party accounting firm provides monthly attestations on the size and composition of the reserve portfolio, which Ripple and Standard Custody publish to demonstrate that outstanding tokens are fully backed by high‑quality liquid assets.[2][5]
Minting and redemption of RLUSD occur off‑chain through Standard Custody, which accepts US dollar deposits from eligible institutional clients and issues an equivalent amount of RLUSD on supported blockchains, or redeems RLUSD for dollars upon verified requests.[4][5] On‑chain, RLUSD functions as a standard fungible token, with account balances and transfers governed by each host network’s native token standard and consensus rules. RLUSD is issued natively on the XRP Ledger and Ethereum and is integrated with the Wormhole interoperability protocol, which allows RLUSD to be represented and transferred on more than 40 additional networks via wrapped or bridged representations, while the core reserve management and redemption logic remain centralized with Standard Custody.[1][5] Ripple incorporates RLUSD into its cross‑border payment products, in which RLUSD can serve as a dollar‑denominated settlement asset alongside XRP, which is used as a bridge asset and for liquidity provisioning.[2]
Tokenomics and Distribution
In the week ending June 8, 2025, RLUSD’s circulating supply increased by 29%, adding $72.5 million and surpassing the $300 million threshold to close at $320.6 million.[1] This represented approximately a sixfold increase in the token’s float since its launch on December 17, 2024.[1] Supply growth was driven by net new issuance rather than token burns or re‑issuance, as Ripple did not conduct redemptions that reduced supply during this period.[1] Despite this expansion, RLUSD represented about 0.1% of the global stablecoin market, estimated at around $236 billion in mid‑2025.[1]
According to Q2 2026 data, RLUSD’s supply continued to grow through 2025 and 2026, reaching an on‑chain all‑time high of approximately $1.7 billion in May 2026 before stabilizing around $1.5–1.54 billion by the end of the second quarter of 2026.[5] Over this period, weekly transfer volume also expanded, with one snapshot in early June 2025 showing a 38% rise in transfer volume to $648.1 million, close to a peak weekly volume of $741 million recorded between April 21 and 27, 2025.[1] As of mid‑2026, roughly 80–82% of RLUSD supply was held on Ethereum and 18–20% on the XRP Ledger, while the XRP Ledger accounted for an estimated 88% of RLUSD’s on‑ledger stablecoin liquidity due to its use in Ripple’s payment flows.[5] RLUSD is listed on several centralized and decentralized trading venues, where it is used for spot trading pairs, as collateral in margin and derivatives markets, and as a settlement asset in institutional payment and treasury operations.[2][5] RLUSD has no fixed maximum supply; issuance and redemptions are demand‑driven, with tokens minted and burned elastically against the underlying reserve assets for eligible institutional clients.
Partnerships
Ripple has developed a network of exchange, payment, and market‑infrastructure partners to support RLUSD’s liquidity and distribution. In October 2024, ahead of the public launch, Ripple announced partnerships with several trading platforms, including Uphold, Bitstamp, Bitso, MoonPay, Independent Reserve, CoinMENA, and Bullish, to list RLUSD and facilitate access for institutional and professional users.[2] Liquidity support was arranged with market makers such as B2C2 and Keyrock to help maintain orderly markets across supported venues.[2]
In the Middle East, RLUSD’s DFSA and FSRA approvals enabled collaborations with regional exchanges and payment providers operating in the Dubai International Financial Centre and the Abu Dhabi Global Market, respectively, integrating RLUSD into institutional settlement and custody offerings.[1][6] In Japan, RLUSD is distributed through SBI VC Trade under a partnership between Ripple and SBI Holdings, with SBI VC Trade acting as the licensed exchange handling customer onboarding and compliance.[3][7]
Ripple also positions RLUSD as infrastructure for institutional tokenization and payments initiatives. RLUSD is referenced in collaborations with asset‑management and trading firms such as BlackRock’s BUIDL tokenization platform and LMAX Group’s institutional trading venues, as well as in payment integrations with providers including Flutterwave in Africa and Mastercard‑linked settlement programs, where RLUSD can function as a dollar‑denominated settlement token.[5] Additional partnerships reported in Q2 2026 include listings on Turkish and Gulf‑region exchanges and integrations with regional payment processors that use RLUSD as collateral or a bridge asset for cross‑border transactions.[5]
Regulation
RLUSD is issued under the supervision of US and foreign regulators through its issuer, Standard Custody & Trust Company, a NYDFS‑chartered limited purpose trust company acquired by Ripple.[1][4] In December 2024, the New York Department of Financial Services formally approved RLUSD as a dollar‑backed stablecoin issued under this trust framework.[2]
Days before RLUSD’s supply surpassed $300 million in June 2025, the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) approved RLUSD for use within the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).[1] Ripple indicated that DFSA approval would allow up to 7,000 locally regulated firms in the DIFC to integrate RLUSD into payment and settlement flows through Ripple’s DFSA‑licensed platforms, supporting its role in UAE‑based institutional payment and custody services.[1][4] In Abu Dhabi, the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) recognized RLUSD as a fiat‑referenced token, enabling its use by licensed institutions within the ADGM financial free zone subject to FSRA rules on issuance, redemption, and reserve management.[6]
In Japan, RLUSD is distributed through SBI VC Trade under Japan’s amended Payment Services Act, which established a framework for issuing and handling stablecoins categorized as electronic payment instruments.[3] In June 2026, Japan’s Financial Services Agency (JFSA) granted RLUSD Type 4 electronic payment instrument status, making it the first foreign‑issued USD stablecoin approved under this category.[7][8] Under the initial JFSA authorization, RLUSD is offered in Japan via SBI VC Trade on Ethereum only, with individual transaction and holding limits around 1 million yen and additional constraints on use for remittances pending further regulatory review.[7][8]
In the European Union, Ripple obtained authorization as a crypto‑asset service provider (CASP) in Luxembourg under the Markets in Crypto‑Assets Regulation (MiCA), allowing it to offer RLUSD‑related services such as custody and trading to institutional clients in the European Economic Area.[5] As of the end of Q2 2026, RLUSD did not hold MiCA electronic money token (EMT) authorization, so it was not treated as an EU‑regulated e‑money stablecoin and generally was not listed on regulated EU retail exchanges that require EMT status, although Ripple indicated that an EMT application for RLUSD was under consideration.[5] According to a Q2 2026 industry report, outstanding questions included the timeline for converting Ripple’s conditional OCC trust charter into a full national charter, the potential granting of MiCA EMT status to RLUSD in the European Union, whether Japan’s initial transaction and holding caps for RLUSD under the Type 4 regime will be relaxed over time, and how RLUSD supply and liquidity will continue to balance between the XRP Ledger and Ethereum as adoption evolves.[7][5]
