Investors will be able to trade Ripple’s new stablecoin starting Tuesday, the company said, following approval from the New York State Department of Financial Services earlier this month.

The US dollar-backed stablecoin called Ripple USD or RLUSD will be issued on the Ethereum blockchain and the XRP ledger and will initially be available on some global exchanges. An expansion to other exchanges is planned in the coming weeks. It will not be available initially Coinbase or Robinhood.

“Part of the impetus for us to launch a stablecoin is the growth we’ve seen, particularly in cross-border payments,” Jack McDonald, senior vice president of stablecoins at Ripple, told CNBC. “As we use stablecoins more and more in our flows, that really piqued our interest that we should have our own native stablecoin that can be more cost-effective and operationally efficient to use.”

The launch comes amid high hopes from the crypto industry for clearer and friendlier US regulations in the coming term of President-elect Donald Trump. The Securities and Exchange Commission, led by crypto opponent Gary Gensler, made an example of Ripple in a 2020 lawsuit, claiming the company was selling XRP as an unregistered securities offering. A judge gave Ripple a partial victory in 2023, ruling that while XRP was a security when sold to institutions, it was not a security when sold to retail investors on exchanges.

The market cap for dollar-backed stablecoins is up 50% this year and about 15% since the election. connection (USDT) dominates about 70% of them, followed by Circle-issued USDCwhich accounts for about 20%.

“The feedback we’re hearing from the market is that people are looking for an alternative to the incumbents – not necessarily a complete replacement, but an alternative,” McDonald said. “There are some concerns about concentration in today’s market – (it’s) certainly something regulators are keeping an eye on, and new institutions coming in don’t necessarily like that concentration.”

Ripple is a 12-year-old business-to-business payments company that conducts much of its business outside the U.S., serving banks, payment companies and other financial institutions with cross-border payment needs. Although stablecoins have been used for trading purposes in the past, other use cases have also emerged, and Ripple is primarily interested in having such a currency as a complement to its existing business, according to McDonald.

“There is a place in payments specifically for both XRP and stablecoins,” he said. “We have been a net mentor to other types of stablecoins in our payments business over the years and use XRP where it makes sense. … We will continue to use both XRP and stablecoins.”

XRP is the native token of the open source XRP Ledger and was created in 2012 by the founders of Ripple. The company uses XRP in its cross-border payments business – about 95% of which takes place outside the US and it is the largest holder of XRP coins.

“As it relates to the fact that we are launching RLUSD on both Ethereum and the XRP Ledger, this creates a greater need for XRP as this bridge asset on the Decks are traded that exist within the XRP Ledger “XRP Ledger is good for XRP.”

Ripple announced earlier this year that it would introduce a stablecoin into an increasingly crowded crypto sector – and a sector that was already growing before the election. In November, Robinhood, crypto exchange Kraken, Galaxy Digital and others announced they would launch a common dollar-backed stablecoin, USDG, on a “Global Dollar Network.” MercadoLibre has also launched an initiative, and fintech company Revolut is reportedly discussing a similar initiative.