Coinspeaker
2 hours ago
Bullish

Ripple’s RLUSD tops $2B market cap, targets settlement across XRPL and ETH

3 min

Ripple’s dollar-pegged stablecoin RLUSD surpassed $2 billion in market capitalization, with more than $1 billion issued on the XRP Ledger, according to Ripple senior vice president Jack McDonald. The disclosure, posted on X and cited by The Crypto Basic, arrived less than two years after RLUSD’s launch and underscores Ripple’s intent to position RLUSD as dollar-based settlement infrastructure for tokenized finance, payments, and lending.

Key figures and sources

  • RLUSD total market cap: above $2 billion across networks.
  • Issuance on XRP Ledger: over $1 billion.
  • Primary source: McDonald’s attestation post on X, rather than third-party aggregators.
  • Reporting timing: early September, per The Crypto Basic.

Supply distribution is fluid: a third-party tracker cited supply on Ethereum rising 93 percent in 30 days and approaching $2.4 billion total market cap, indicating growing EVM deployment alongside XRPL.

Context on XRPL activity

Ripple highlighted issuance on XRPL as network usage and tokenized activity increase.

SOURCE: DefiLlama

RLUSD’s intended role: settlement rail

  • Ripple positions RLUSD as the dollar leg for tokenized-asset trading and institutional settlement, with XRP supporting broader network activity.
  • Strategic moves: investments in ZILO and Licuido to expand XRPL financial infrastructure and access.
  • Thesis: as banks and institutions tokenize securities and funds, demand for a dollar settlement instrument on-chain increases.

Milestone framing and adoption channels

  • McDonald presented $2 billion as a checkpoint, not a final objective, noting market cap is an incomplete metric.
  • Near-term growth drivers include exchange incentives: Bybit’s Hold and Earn program attracted over $50 million in RLUSD deposits in 11 days, followed by an expanded rewards phase for XRP and RLUSD.
  • Institutional lending initiatives aim to create durable settlement use: collaborations with Clearpool and Cicada Credit for fintech and payments lending on XRPL.
  • Kenya-based program with MC Social Venture, BlockBima, and Fortune Credit reported a 97 percent reduction in settlement time and roughly 3,000x cost reduction for small-business insurance and credit flows.

What to watch

  • Distribution across XRPL and EVM chains as issuance shifts with liquidity and integrations.
  • Growth in tokenized real-world assets on XRPL as a proxy for institutional settlement demand.
  • Conversion of incentive-driven deposits into recurring payment and lending flows.

Implications: RLUSD’s scale and multi-chain issuance signal growing utility as settlement infrastructure. Confirmation requires sustained institutional usage, increased RWA activity on XRPL, and measurable payment and lending throughput beyond exchange incentives.