Ripple is confident in its prospects in the increasingly competitive enterprise stablecoin space, announcing a range of exchange partners and customers for its RLUSD coin.
RLUSD is a US dollar-pegged stablecoin that Ripple plans to offer globally. The coin has been accepted by a number of exchanges and platforms including Uphold, Bitstamp, Bitso, MoonPay, Independent Reserve, CoinMENA, and Bullish.
Cryptocurrencies, including stablecoins, are still something of a regulatory grey area in some jurisdictions. Concerns around regulatory compliance are commonplace and sometimes affect market stability, as occurred following the 2022 FTX collapse, whilst some regulators are seen by the industry as conformational – the US SEC has been accused of this.
Ripple is confident that its stablecoin will meet the compliance standards of regulators and the market. This is largely due to the coin being issued under a New York Trust Company Charter, which Ripple asserts will guarantee ‘rigorous oversight and regulation’.
The company has also put together an advisory board to guide its coin’s compliance. The board includes former Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Chair Sheila Bair, Vice Chairman of Partners Capital and former CENTRE Consortium CEO, David Puth, and Ripple Co-founder and Executive Chairman, Chris Larsen.
Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple CEO, said: “With our initial exchange partners, the clear utility and demand for RLUSD, and a strong focus on regulatory compliance, Ripple’s stablecoin is poised to become the gold standard for enterprise-grade stablecoins.
“Customers and partners have been asking for high-quality stablecoins like RLUSD to use across various financial use cases, such as payments, tokenisation of real-world assets, and decentralised finance.
“Our payment solutions will leverage RLUSD, XRP, and other digital assets to enable faster, more reliable, and cost-effective cross-border payments.”
Stablecoins picking up speed
Ripple is not the first and likely won’t be the last major cryptocurrency stakeholder to launch its own stablecoin. The value of the global stablecoin market is put between $160m and $170m in most estimates, and various companies want to get involved.
UK-based fintech Revolut is one of the biggest examples of a major firm – the company is the UK’s most valuable startup, though it has recently courted some controversy around fraud prevention – to probe launching a native stablecoin.
The company has been involved in crypto for some time and sees a stablecoin launch as an ideal next step in its enhancement of this activity. Though Ripple’s coin will be USD-pegged, European opportunities have been catching the attention of many due to the incoming Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) potentially breaking the dominance Tether and Circle have over the regional sector.
For Ripple, the company has identified some key benefits and use cases for its native stablecoin asserting that stablecoins will play a ‘critical role’ in decentralised finance.
The firm has also highlighted facilitation of real-time 24/7 global payments, on and off ramping between fiat and cryptocurrencies and tokenisation of real world assets like commodities and securities – something banks like HSBC have been evaluating with commodities like gold – as key advantages.
“As the convergence of crypto and traditional financial markets continues to accelerate, regulated stablecoins, such as RLUSD, create a trusted pathway for institutions to trade digital assets,” said Chris Tyrer, Head of Institutional at crypto exchange Bullish.
“As an RLUSD exchange partner, we are delighted to expand Bullish’s institutional offering with an additional stablecoin that not only meets rigorous regulatory standards but also enhances our customers’ trading experience with a highly liquid and compliant digital asset.”
