Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse confirmed that the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), the top cryptocurrency regulator in New York, has officially approved Ripple's new stablecoin RLUSD. The token associated with Ripple Labs, XRP, rose more than 4% in the past 24 hours, making it one of the few cryptocurrencies to rise yesterday.
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Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse announced in April that the company is entering the stablecoin market with its stablecoin called RLUSD, which is fully backed by US dollar deposits, short-term US government treasury bills, and other cash equivalents. The plan is to issue it this year based on the ERC-20 token standard and support it on Ripple's XRP Distributed Ledger and Ethereum.
Ripple stated that it is committed to regulatory compliance, as the company and its subsidiaries hold a New York BitLicense, have money transmitter licenses in nearly 40 US states, the Monetary Authority of Singapore's Major Payment Institution License (MPI), and are registered as a Virtual Asset Service Provider with the Central Bank of Ireland. Ripple also agreed to acquire Standard Custody this year, one of the few crypto companies that hold a New York state trust charter. RLUSD will be positioned as a key participant in the regulated digital finance market in New York and the broader stablecoin ecosystem.
According to The Block, Ripple began testing RLUSD in August. Subsequently, in October, it designated Uphold, Bitstamp, Bitso, MoonPay, Independent Reserve, CoinMENA, and Bullish as exchange partners for the RLUSD launch, with B2C2 and Keyrock providing market-making support for its liquidity. CEO Brad Garlinghouse stated that RLUSD will soon be live on the partner exchanges.
XRP market cap reaches $134 Billion
Ripple's core business revolves around its decentralized global payment network RippleNet, which uses Blockchain technology to provide banks and enterprises with faster, cheaper, and more efficient cross-border payment solutions. It is touted as an alternative to the global banking settlement system SWIFT. Ripple's native token XRP serves as a bridge currency to settle these transactions, but the token is currently in regulatory limbo in the US, as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) continues to argue in court that it is an unregistered security.
However, with the confirmation of Trump's return to the White House and the announcement that SEC Chair Gary Gensler will step down next January, XRP has surged 293% in the past month, bringing its market cap to $134 Billion, on par with the stablecoin USDT, making it the third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap after Bit and Ether.
