Ripple has announced its exchange partners and customers for its U.S. dollar-denominated stablecoin, Ripple USD (RLUSD).
The stablecoin will be available globally for institutions and users on exchanges and platforms like Uphold, Bitstamp, Bitso, MoonPay, Independent Reserve, CoinMENA and Bullish, Ripple said in a Tuesday (Oct. 15) press release.
“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,” Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said in the release.
Garlinghouse added that customers have been asking for stablecoins to use across use cases like payments, tokenization of real-world assets and decentralized finance, and that Ripple’s payment solutions will use RLUSD and other digital assets to facilitate cross-border payments.
To guide the introduction of RLUSD to the market, Ripple has assembled an advisory board that includes former Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) Chair Sheila Bair, Partners Capital Vice Chairman David Puth, and Ripple Co-Founder and Executive Chairman Chris Larsen, according to the release.
Potential use cases for RLUSD include real-time global payments via Ripple’s cross-border payments solution that covers more than 90 markets; a bridge between traditional fiat currencies and the crypto ecosystem, eliminating worries about price volatility; and tokenization of real-world assets to facilitate trading commodities, securities and treasuries on-chain, per the release.
“Each RLUSD token is 100% backed by U.S. dollar deposits, U.S. government bonds and cash equivalents,” the release said. “To ensure full transparency, Ripple will publish monthly, third-party audited attestations of reserve assets conducted by BPM.”
Ripple announced in April that it planned to launch a dollar-pegged stablecoin.
The company said at the time that the current $150 billion stablecoin market is projected to surpass $2.8 trillion by 2028.
FinTechs around the world have taken notice of stablecoin’s ability to offer the benefits of digital currencies without the volatility of cryptocurrency, PYMNTS reported in September.
Bloomberg reported in September that Robinhood Markets and Revolut are considering issuing their own stablecoins due to expectations that regulatory changes in Europe and elsewhere will expand opportunities in the digital asset sector.
