On December 17, Ripple announced that trading of its new dollar-backed stablecoin Ripple USD (RLUSD) had gone live on multiple exchanges around the world:

Source: X

The stablecoin was launched on both the XRP Ledger and Ethereum blockchains, ensuring wide accessibility and interoperability.

In a press release issued on Monday, Ripple stated that while the RLUSD launch would initially occur on Uphold, Bitso, MoonPay, Archax and CoinMENA, RLUSD would also be listed on other crypto trading platforms such as Bullish, Bitstamp, Mercado Bitcoin, Independent Reserve and Zero Hash in the next few weeks. It also said that each RLUSD token is backed by USD deposits, US treasuries and cash equivalents to ensure it is stable, reliable and liquid.

On December 14, Ripple CTO David Schwartz warned the community about possible supply shortages in the early days of RLUSD, which could lead to temporary price volatility. He assured users that short-term divergences would quickly stabilize as arbitrage mechanisms would bring the value of RLUSD back to the intended peg of $1. Schwartz emphasized that the main purpose of the stablecoin is to maintain price stability and warned against irrational speculative behavior.

Source: X

Designed for financial applications, RLUSD enables institutions to process cross-border payments, access liquidity for remittances and treasury operations, and integrate with decentralized finance protocols. It acts as a bridge between fiat currencies and the crypto ecosystem, simplifying the transition to enter and exit digital assets.

RLUSD can also be used to collateralize on-chain trading of tokenized real-world assets such as commodities, securities, and treasuries. Starting early next year, Ripple Payments will use RLUSD to process global payments for enterprise customers.

The launch of RLUSD is already being reported in business media such as Fox Business and NYSE TV:

Source: X

Source: X

At the time of writing, XRP is trading at around $2.61, up 5% in the last 24 hours and helping to strengthen XRP’s claim to be the third most valuable cryptocurrency.