RLUSD has exceeded a $2 billion market capitalization, with more than $1 billion of its supply now circulating on the XRP Ledger as Ripple broadens the stablecoin’s use cases across tokenized finance, payments and lending.
Ripple’s dollar-pegged stablecoin RLUSD has passed the $2 billion market-cap milestone, while issuance on the XRP Ledger has topped $1 billion, according to Jack McDonald, the company’s senior vice president overseeing stablecoins.
McDonald announced the milestone on X, formerly Twitter, noting that RLUSD achieved the figure less than two years after its launch. Blockchain publication The Crypto Basic first reported the update.
The milestone highlights a broader objective for Ripple. Rather than developing RLUSD solely as a trading asset for cryptocurrency exchanges, the company is seeking to establish it as dollar-based settlement infrastructure for tokenized assets, payment transactions and lending.
RLUSD Crosses the $2B Threshold
According to McDonald, more than $1 billion worth of RLUSD has been issued on the XRP Ledger alone. That amount refers specifically to XRP Ledger supply and is separate from RLUSD’s total market capitalization across all supported networks.
The announcement came in early September and was based on McDonald’s direct disclosure rather than an estimate from an external data provider.
That distinction is important because stablecoin market-cap figures can differ between analytics platforms depending on the time of measurement and calculation methods. The figures for RLUSD issuance and its distribution across networks were provided by Ripple’s stablecoin executive.
Higher activity across the XRP Ledger in recent months also helps explain why the amount of RLUSD issued on the network has become a key figure for Ripple to highlight.
Ripple Builds RLUSD Around Settlement
Ripple’s strategy is to make RLUSD the dollar-denominated settlement asset for tokenized financial products, while XRP continues to support other functions across the XRP Ledger.
The company has taken additional steps to develop this ecosystem, including investments in ZILO and Licuido, aimed at expanding the financial infrastructure supporting digital assets on the network.
As financial institutions increasingly explore putting securities, funds and other traditional assets on-chain, demand for digital dollar settlement instruments could rise. Ripple’s infrastructure expansion around the XRP Ledger and RLUSD reflects that potential shift.
Market Cap Does Not Tell the Whole Story
McDonald described the $2 billion milestone as an achievement but cautioned that market capitalization should not be treated as the only measure of RLUSD’s development. His comments suggest Ripple views the milestone as part of a longer-term expansion strategy.
A portion of RLUSD’s recent growth has been linked to exchange incentive programs, which can increase deposits without necessarily demonstrating sustained institutional payment activity.
Bybit’s Hold and Earn program, for instance, attracted more than $50 million in RLUSD deposits over 11 days. Ripple and Bybit subsequently introduced a second phase with larger incentives for XRP and RLUSD.
Although such campaigns indicate demand, they do not necessarily establish lasting adoption for payments or settlement. Ripple’s efforts to bring RLUSD into lending markets may offer a clearer test of its practical utility.
Partnerships with Clearpool and Cicada Credit are designed to channel RLUSD into financing for fintech and payments companies using the XRP Ledger. In Kenya, a separate project involving MC Social Venture, BlockBima and Fortune Credit aims to improve small-business access to insurance and credit.
Ripple has claimed that the Kenya initiative reduced settlement times by 97% and lowered costs by around 3,000 times. If those results can be sustained as the project expands, they could provide stronger evidence of RLUSD’s real-world value than market-cap growth alone.
For now, there is no conclusive evidence that higher RLUSD issuance has significantly increased overall XRP Ledger liquidity or the network’s broader crypto market capitalization.
The growth of tokenized real-world assets on the XRP Ledger will be an important indicator to watch as Ripple attempts to move RLUSD deeper into institutional finance and establish it as a widely used settlement instrument.
