Ripple's RLUSD Tops $2.5 Billion in Circulation on the XRP Ledger

Ripple's Dollar Token Crosses $2.5 Billion

RLUSD, the dollar-pegged stablecoin Ripple issues natively on the XRP Ledger, crossed $2.5 billion in circulation as of October 1, when the company's official disclosure page put outstanding supply at $2,509.8 million and reserve assets at $2,633.8 million. The two figures matter together: the gap of roughly $124 million between reserves and the circulating float is the cushion an issuer marketing itself as fully backed is expected to hold, and it absorbs redemption demand before backing is ever questioned. Both sides of the balance sheet come from the issuer itself, published as data as of October 1 rather than a live feed, a distinction that matters when markets move quickly. The disclosure follows Ripple's monthly independent attestation cycle, in which reserves and circulation are verified and published each month, and the October 1 snapshot is the newest on file. For treasurers, the dual print of supply and reserves on a single page is the number they check before routing settlement volume through the token. Momentum was visible before the round number: in a September 30 roundup, Jack McDonald, Ripple's senior vice president for stablecoins, reported a market capitalization of roughly $2.4 billion, a gain of more than 50% in a single month, and said activity averaged per day has more than tripled since January. Aggregate market data read by our desk on Monday put circulating value near $2.50 billion, consistent with the company's own disclosure. McDonald used the same post to push back on loose use of the word “regulated” in the stablecoin market, arguing institutions should judge issuers on reserve requirements, attestations and ongoing supervision, the standard he says RLUSD meets. For the XRP ecosystem the print is the largest balance-sheet milestone the token has recorded since launch, and with XRP itself trading rangebound, RLUSD now stands as the clearest growth metric on the ledger this quarter.

@_JackMcDonald_ · X post

September 30 roundup.

View on X

Built for Banks, Now on Five More Chains

RLUSD launched on December 17, 2024, and has been issued natively on the XRP Ledger and Ethereum since day one, with nodes on the base ledger recording supply directly on-chain. Issuance and distribution run through regulated entities under Ripple's umbrella, including Standard Custody and Trust Company, a custody business whose oversight spans KYC requirements, reserve attestations and continuous supervision. The design brief is institutional rather than retail: cross-border transfers and corporate treasury management for banks and payment firms. Since launch the token has spread past its two home chains through Wormhole's Native Token Transfers standard, an interoperability framework that lets issuers move a token across networks without wrapped custodial copies. Each network holds a canonical version rather than a bridged proxy, which keeps custody and audit trails uniform across the footprint. RLUSD is now live on Base, Ink, Optimism, Unichain and the XRP Ledger EVM Sidechain, and that reach extends across several Ethereum-adjacent rollups while base issuance stays on XRPL. Distribution is widening through DeFi venues too: McDonald's post notes RLUSD's liquidity is expanding via Spark Finance's Stablecoin FX Layer on Uniswap v4, where the RLUSD/USDS pair processed more than $600 million in its first week, an early proof that DeFi 2.0-style routing can carry institutional dollar volume. The same roundup flagged RippleX's updated XRP Ledger AI Starter Kit, which adds support for the Machine Payments Protocol co-authored by Stripe and Tempo, giving AI agents a route to settle one-time payments on the ledger using XRP and issued assets like RLUSD. The stablecoin's growth lands while XRP's own tape is quiet: XRP price has held $1.50 in a tight band ahead of the October 8 breakout window, and Binance XRP open interest fell 32% as liquidation pressure eased.

Utility, Not Speculation, Is the Pitch

COINOTAG's read is that RLUSD's climb is plumbing news for the XRP Ledger first and a price story second, and that is a different claim from the usual altcoin cycle narrative. The load-bearing record is primary: Ripple's own disclosure page and McDonald's attestation post state the $2.51 billion supply and the $2.63 billion reserve stack in plain figures, with the activity tripling measured in the issuer's own units. Durability arguments from outside, such as the case that XRP's track record could reassure advisers, land easier when a ledger shows this kind of utility growth. And the purpose, in McDonald's closing word, is “utility”: attested, regulated dollars for institutions that move money.