Ripple’s Stablecoin RLUSD is approaching a market cap of $900 million within a year

Less than a year after launch, RLUSD is approaching a $900 million market cap.

Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin is approaching a market cap of $900 million, according to the company’s last independent attestation report in October. This figure has more than doubled in just three months, from $400 million in August.

Launched less than a year ago, RLUSD is pegged 1:1 to the US dollar and backed by deposits, short-term US Treasury bonds and other cash equivalents, providing users with stability and security.

Ripple’s RLUSD Growth

More than $1.5 million in renewed grants from the University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI) have already been fully funded from RLUSD. Just last week, Brale, a platform that allows companies to issue USD-backed stablecoins, integrated with the XRP Ledger (XRPL) to enable settlement in RLUSD.

Shortly afterwards, Ripple also completed the acquisition of prime brokerage firm Hidden Road in a $1.25 billion deal, which will now operate as Ripple Prime. The company’s customers reportedly use RLUSD as collateral or hold their balance in the stablecoin. The updates were shared by Jack McDonald, Senior Vice President of Stablecoins at Ripple.

As reported by CryptoPotatoTembo e-LV, the electric vehicle subsidiary of VivoPower International PLC, began accepting payments in RLUSD in September. The main goal behind this move is to streamline international payments by addressing long payment times and the high fees often associated with traditional wire transfers.

According to Tembo, transactions using the stablecoin can be completed almost instantly and at a fraction of the cost of conventional methods. The company expects the shift to RLUSD to improve operational efficiency, reduce transaction costs and expand its treasury options within the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.

The decision to use RLUSD instead of Ripple’s more established cryptocurrency, XRP, has sparked curiosity among observers. Although the company has not clarified its reasoning, the choice likely stems from RLUSD’s price stability, making it more suitable for payment and settlement applications compared to XRP’s volatility.

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RLUSD and XRP can coexist

Alexis Sirkia, captain of the Yellow Network, recently said that he sees Ripple’s RLUSD as a complement to, and not a rival to, XRP. According to him, the stablecoin acts as a “liquidity enhancer,” which could support XRP’s role rather than compete with it.

Sirkia explained that integrating RLUSD within the U.S. banking system gives the company the compliance and infrastructure necessary to function as a trusted settlement layer for institutions. As RLUSD activity grows, so does the demand for XRP as a bridge asset within the XRP Ledger (XRPL) ecosystem.

He noted that the stablecoin is already being used in African markets through payment platforms such as Chipper Cash and Yellow Card and enables real-time swaps with tokenized money market funds. With growing institutional involvement, including ETFs, and broader integration of RLUSD, Sirkia expects transaction volumes to accelerate across the network, thereby strengthening the link between traditional financial systems and decentralized finance.