Ripple’s stablecoin RLUSD is gaining attention in the financial market just four months after its launch in mid-December 2024. According to CoinMarketCap, RLUSD market capitalization has reached $293 million amid increasing interest and use. Over $10 billion in cumulative trading has already occurred, and daily trading volumes now reach as high as $65 million.
Ripple’s goal is bigger: pushing RLUSD into the top five stablecoins by the end of 2025. Whether that happens depends not just on more listings but on broader adoption, institutional utility, and Ripple’s next moves.
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RLUSD’s Uptick Since Its December Debut
When RLUSD launched in December, it appeared on several crypto exchanges, including Bitstamp, MoonPay, CoinMENA, and Uphold. In the months since, new listings such as LMAX and Kraken have improved the coin’s visibility, with Kraken’s listing boosting 40% in trading volume.
Ripple’s SVP of Stablecoins, Jack McDonald, highlighted in a tweet that RLUSD’s February attestation showed faster-than-expected growth. Its market value jumped to over $170 million earlier this year and has continued climbing to the current $293 million mark.
Ripple joined the fast-expanding stablecoin sector with its U.S. government bond-backed token after getting approval from the New York Department of Financial Services in December. Since that time, RLUSD hit a $244 million market cap, rising 87% in the last month and hitting a $860 million monthly transfer volume, rwa.xyz data indicates.
Competing With the Top Five
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse recently appeared on Bloomberg Television and made a bold claim: he expects RLUSD to join the five largest stablecoins before 2026. That ambition, while optimistic, will demand a steep climb. Right now, RLUSD ranks 12th with a market cap of $293 million, while FDUSD, the fifth-largest, holds a significantly higher valuation.
For RLUSD to catch up, its market cap must grow roughly 13 times in nine months – assuming competitors stay where they are. That’s a massive leap. The current top four – USDT, USDC, DAI, and USDe – command a dominant share, and their growth hasn’t slowed. For RLUSD, simply growing faster than its rivals won’t be enough. It has to radically outpace them.
Read also: FDUSD Stablecoin Suffers Depeg Following Justin Sun’s Solvency Warning
Still, the momentum is real. The rising number of exchange listings and its widening utility suggest growing confidence. McDonald noted that RLUSD had already outperformed Ripple’s internal projections. If the pace continues and Ripple’s expansion strategy hits the right notes, the gap may narrow.
Recent Strategic Developments
The stablecoin’s story is about Ripple’s strategic developments. Recently, RLUSD has integrated into Ripple Payments, Ripple’s flagship enterprise payment platform. The integration pushes RLUSD into real-world commercial corridors, especially in cross-border payment services, where predictability and fast settlement are key.
Ripple didn’t stop there. In January, the company partnered with Chainlink to give RLUSD secure, real-time pricing data for DeFi applications. This collaboration aims to cement RLUSD’s place in the decentralized financial ecosystem, ensuring it’s more than just another exchange-traded token.
On April 2, Ripple announced a $1.25 billion acquisition of prime brokerage firm Hidden Road. The deal is Ripple’s largest ever, and it positions RLUSD to potentially move deeper into institutional finance.
Hidden Road clears over $3 trillion in assets annually and works with more than 300 institutional clients. These clients represent a massive new audience that Ripple may aim to introduce to RLUSD through its payment and finance services.
Final Outlook
RLUSD has had a good run since December. It’s gaining speed, listings, and trust. A market cap nearing $300 million is a solid early result. But to make Garlinghouse’s prediction come true, RLUSD needs to multiply its market value over the next few months, something only a few coins have managed in such a short time.
Ripple’s expansion strategy – whether it’s the $1.25 billion acquisition of Hidden Road, Chainlink collaboration, or aggressive platform integration – could put the stablecoin on the right path. Still, the space is crowded, and the pace of growth must accelerate dramatically if RLUSD is to break into the top five.
Read also: Everything You Need to Know About the Digital Euro
