Ripple's RLUSD Adds $765.3 Million in Q3, Expanding the XRP Ecosystem

RLUSD Adds $765.3 Million in Q3

Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin added $765.3 million to its market cap during the third quarter of 2026, ranking second among stablecoin issuers for growth behind only Circle, according to issuer-level figures tracked in the RWA Foundation's quarterly dataset published on Friday, Oct. 2. The quarter ran from early July through Wednesday, Sept. 30. Circle led all issuers with a $915 million increase, while United Stables took third place with $474.2 million, its U token holding just 0.5% of supply. RLUSD is Ripple's dollar-indexed stablecoin, positioned by the company for cross-border payments, institutional liquidity, tokenization and collateral operations rather than retail trading alone. The sector's total market value reached $300.9 billion as of Thursday, Oct. 1, spread across 195 assets, 152 issuers and 47 blockchain networks, with 308.4 million addresses holding stablecoins. For a pegged token, market value growth tracks newly issued supply, so the $765.3 million reflects tokens minted and placed with users and institutions over roughly 90 days. RLUSD represents just 0.8% of total stablecoin supply, which makes its second-place growth ranking stand out. Ripple's official transparency page listed 2.409 billion RLUSD in circulation as of Thursday, Sept. 24, and holder addresses grew by 23,600 over the quarter, enough to place the token in the top 10 for holder growth. Tether (USDT), which commands 61.0% of stablecoin supply, missed the top 10 for growth entirely and posted the largest contraction of any issuer, shedding $207.7 million. The biggest moves of the quarter occurred between chains rather than within single networks. For the XRP ecosystem, RLUSD's expansion enlarges the dollar-pegged liquidity base on the XRP Ledger, which hosts the token alongside Ethereum, and stablecoin supply is often read across the altcoin market as potential buying power. The XRP price did not drive these figures; the quarter's record is one of issued supply and new holders, not spot demand.

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Tracked in the RWA Foundation's quarterly dataset.

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Attestations, AI Payments and Liquidity Rails

Operational updates through the quarter explain where the new RLUSD is landing. Ripple SVP of Stablecoins Jack McDonald shared highlights from the stablecoin's monthly independent attestation for August, the primary record that verifies reserves, and it confirmed RLUSD topping $2.4 billion in market value, up more than 50% in a single month, with average daily activity more than tripled since the start of the year. An attestation of this kind is an outside check that a token's reserves match its circulating supply, published monthly rather than only at audits. RLUSD is structured for 1:1 backing in cash, short-term US Treasuries and other permitted liquid assets, and it circulates on the XRP Ledger and Ethereum. Distribution widened as well: Spark Finance's Stablecoin FX Layer on Uniswap v4, an automated market maker venue, processed more than $600 million in RLUSD/USDS volume during its first week, and its pooled inventory is built to serve market makers converting between dollar-pegged assets. Routing conversions through pooled venues keeps RLUSD tradeable at its peg without deep order books on every exchange. On the development side, Ripple updated the XRP Ledger AI Starter Kit to support the Machine Payments Protocol (MPP), a specification co-authored by Stripe and Tempo that gives AI agents a way to make one-time payments on XRPL using XRP and issued assets such as RLUSD. That update ties RLUSD demand directly to on-ledger activity within the XRP ecosystem, because MPP settlements can clear in XRP itself. Taken together, the attestation, the FX layer and the payments kit point RLUSD at cross-border payments, institutional liquidity, tokenization and collateral work, the channels Ripple has named as its growth targets. For XRP holders, the distinction is that RLUSD issuance and XRP settlement can reinforce each other: a payment corridor denominated in RLUSD still clears on the same ledger that secures XRP.

What RLUSD Growth Means for XRP

COINOTAG's view: the load-bearing primary record in this quarter's data is the monthly attestation Ripple publishes for RLUSD, which states the token exceeded $2.4 billion with average daily activity up more than threefold since January. A stablecoin holding 0.8% of sector supply yet ranking second in quarterly growth points to payment and tokenization demand rather than speculative churn, and the same institutional build-out is visible in XRP's wider market: Jane Street's XRP ETF stake jumped 5,733% to 1.2 million shares, Franklin Templeton's $4.07 million net inflow led XRP ETFs to open October, and Ripple's escrow program released 1 billion XRP worth $1.49 billion across four transactions. Sustained second-place growth now depends on payment and DeFi volume, not issuance alone.