Ripple Bets on RLUSD for Global Settlement Following $2B Breakthrough

RLUSD has moved above the $2 billion market-cap threshold, with more than $1 billion of its supply now issued on the XRP Ledger as Ripple seeks to expand the stablecoin’s role in payments, lending and tokenized markets.

Ripple’s U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin RLUSD has reached a market capitalization of more than $2 billion, while the amount issued on the XRP Ledger has exceeded $1 billion, according to Jack McDonald, Ripple’s senior vice president overseeing stablecoin operations.

McDonald revealed the figures in a post on X, formerly Twitter, less than two years after RLUSD launched. The milestone was subsequently reported by blockchain-focused publication The Crypto Basic.

The development underscores Ripple’s broader plans for RLUSD. The company is positioning the stablecoin as a dollar-based settlement mechanism for digital financial activity, including tokenized assets, payments and lending, instead of relying primarily on exchange trading for its adoption.

RLUSD Reaches $2B

McDonald said the supply of RLUSD issued on the XRP Ledger has passed $1 billion. That figure specifically reflects issuance on the ledger and is not the same as RLUSD’s total market capitalization across the networks where it operates.

The disclosure came in early September and was based on McDonald’s own statement rather than a market-cap estimate from an independent data provider.

That matters because different analytics platforms can report varying stablecoin market-cap figures depending on the time of their data capture and their methodology. In this case, the figures concerning RLUSD issuance and its network distribution came directly from Ripple’s stablecoin leadership.

The increase in activity on the XRP Ledger in recent months also offers some background for the rising amount of RLUSD issued there. As Ripple develops the ecosystem, XRP Ledger issuance has become an increasingly visible measure of the stablecoin’s growth.

Ripple Expands RLUSD’s Utility

Ripple wants RLUSD to serve as the dollar-denominated component of transactions involving tokenized financial assets. XRP, meanwhile, can continue to facilitate other forms of activity across the XRP Ledger.

The company has sought to strengthen that ecosystem through investments in firms such as ZILO and Licuido, with the goal of expanding the digital infrastructure surrounding the network.

If banks and other financial institutions continue putting securities, funds and other traditional financial instruments on-chain, the need for digital dollar settlement assets could grow as well. Ripple’s work around RLUSD and the XRP Ledger is aimed at positioning the company to capture that demand.

$2B Market Cap Is Not the Final Goal

McDonald welcomed the $2 billion milestone but also pointed out that market capitalization alone does not capture the full picture of RLUSD’s progress. His comments frame the achievement as another step in the stablecoin’s development rather than an end point.

The nature of recent growth also deserves attention. Some of the increase in RLUSD deposits has been supported by exchange incentives, which can generate significant balances without necessarily proving sustained institutional use.

Bybit’s Hold and Earn campaign attracted more than $50 million in RLUSD deposits within 11 days. Ripple and Bybit subsequently rolled out a second phase with enhanced rewards for XRP and RLUSD users.

While these campaigns show that users are willing to hold RLUSD when incentives are available, they do not necessarily demonstrate lasting demand for the stablecoin in payments or settlement.

Ripple’s lending initiatives may offer a more meaningful measure of real-world adoption. Partnerships involving Clearpool and Cicada Credit are intended to direct RLUSD toward loans for fintech and payments companies operating through the XRP Ledger.

A separate project in Kenya involving MC Social Venture, BlockBima and Fortune Credit is designed to expand small-business access to credit and insurance. Ripple said the initiative reduced settlement times by 97% and cut costs by roughly 3,000 times.

If those efficiencies can be maintained as the program expands, they could offer stronger evidence of RLUSD’s practical value than market-cap growth alone.

Still, the available data does not yet demonstrate that the increase in RLUSD issuance has produced a comparable rise in XRP Ledger liquidity or overall network capitalization.

The expansion of tokenized real-world assets on the XRP Ledger will therefore be an important indicator as Ripple attempts to establish RLUSD as a more significant settlement instrument for institutional finance.