What’s Ripple’s RLUSD Launch Date?

Ripple USD (RLUSD), a new stablecoin developed by major crypto firm Ripple, is currently in private beta mode. According to statements by Ripple officials, the public launch could happen sometime in 2024.

As of October 10th, at the time of writing this article, 47.1 million RLUSD stablecoins are already in circulation on XRP Ledger and Ethereum. The newly issued stablecoins are reserved for testing and ironing out any potential bugs before the widespread release slated for later this year.

What is Ripple USD?

RLUSD is a stablecoin developed by the crypto payments company Ripple, which is probably best known for its role in developing the XRP coin. RLUSD is designed to maintain a constant 1-to-1 peg to the value of the US dollar. 

 The RLUSD stablecoin is issued on both XRP Ledger and Ethereum, providing users of both blockchains with access to deep liquidity, instant settlement, and programmable finance. There are several business use cases where Ripple believes RLUSD will shine, including:

• Remittance and money transfers: Instant cross-border transactions for USD-pegged remittance payments.
• Centralized exchanges: Facilitating market trading as a stablecoin trading pair for various cryptocurrencies.
• Payment service providers: Ability to facilitate cryptocurrency transactions with a regulatory-compliant stablecoin.

There are currently over 47M RLUSD in circulation for testing purposes. Image source: CryptoQuant

It’s worth noting that Ripple is currently stress-testing the stablecoin and minting and burning the RLUSD supply as needed. The point is to avoid any potential bugs that could have a negative impact on the performance of the stablecoin on the Ethereum and XRP Ledger blockchain. 

It’s possible to track transactions used for beta testing on XRP Scan or some other XRP explorer. For more convenience, you can also follow the Ripple Stablecoin Tracker account on X, which regularly posts about the biggest RLUSD burns carried out by the RLUSD Treasury.

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 2,000,000 #RLUSD burned at RLUSD Treasury.https://t.co/LKz78qMGsg

— Ripple Stablecoin Tracker (@RL_Tracker) October 9, 2024

When will RLUSD launch?

No official release date for RLUSD has been announced so far. However, based on the comments made by Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse when speaking at the Korean Blockchain Week in September, we can assume that RLUSD will launch before the end of 2024 or, at the latest, at the start of 2025.

When asked about the upcoming plans for the official launch of RLUSD, Garlinghouse noted that the stablecoin will be launching in the coming weeks. “We will certainly launch soon. Weeks, not months,” he said.

According to Garlinghouse, the firm first decided to launch RLUSD in March of 2023, when the second-largest stablecoin, USD Coin, lost its dollar peg. “We felt like there was an opportunity for a credible player already working with lots of financial institutions to lean into that market,” the CEO noted.

Where to buy RLUSD?

At the moment, you can’t buy RLUSD anywhere as it’s in a private beta testing phase. Once the stablecoin exits the testing stage and launches, it will most likely be available to buy, sell, and trade on most of the top cryptocurrency exchanges.

The total market cap of stablecoins reached a new all-time high in late September, peaking at $169 billion. Before that, the record combined market capitalization of all stablecoins was $150 billion, reached in August of 2022. RLUSD will enter the market during a period of significant growth, which will probably have a positive impact on its adoption.

The market cap of stablecoins reached a new ATH in late September. Image source: CryptoQuant

The bottom line

The latest available information from Ripple suggests that we can expect RLUSD to launch sometime before the end of the year. The stablecoin is currently in a private beta where basic transaction functionality is being put to the test.

If successful, RLUSD will shake up the current duopoly held by the two largest stablecoins, Tether and USD Coin. If you want to learn how they compare, check out our USDC vs USDT comparison.