Ripple, the issuer of the fast-growing RLUSD stablecoin, recently announced an ambitious multi-chain strategy to expand its presence in the cryptocurrency space.
As part of this initiative, RLUSD will be integrated with Layer 2 (L2) solutions on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain, facilitating a partnership with Wormhole, one of the largest protocols for cross-chain interoperability.
Ripple is focusing on broader Blockchain integration
In press release published on Monday, Ripple and Wormhole detailed its plans to begin testing on several notable L2 networks, including Optimism (OP), Base, Ink, and Unichain.
The collaboration will leverage the Wormhole Native Token Transfers (NTT) standard, which aims to ensure competent flow of liquidity across various blockchain ecosystems while allowing Ripple to maintain native control over RLUSD.
Originally launched on both platforms XRP Ledger (XRPL) and Ethereum, RLUSD aims to improve cross-chain functionality and decentralized finance (DeFi) capabilities.
Jack McDonald, Senior Vice President of Stablecoin at Ripple, highlighted the importance of stablecoins in the DeFi landscape, stating:
Stablecoins are the gateway to DeFi and institutional adoption. RLUSD was designed from the ground up to be the trusted, liquid medium that users need to seamlessly enter, interact with, and exit across the digital asset economy.
The executive also highlighted this by launching RLUSD on them as the first custody-regulated stablecoin in the US L2 networksRipple also sets the standard where compliance meets on-chain performance. Looking ahead, Ripple plans to launch RLUSD on additional networks pending final regulatory approval.
RLUSD becomes the third largest regulated stablecoin in the US
Notably, RLUSD reached a market capitalization of $1.3 billion in less than a year, making it the third-largest stablecoin among regulated options in the US, according to CoinGecko data.
In November alone, the circulating supply of RLUSD, adjusted to the requirements of the GENIUS Act, increased by 28%, exceeding the billion-dollar threshold. It currently ranks behind only Circle’s USDC and PayPal’s PYUSD among US-regulated dollar tokens.
In a significant development this November, so did Ripple initiated a novel pilot program with time-honored financial giants Mastercard, WebBank and cryptocurrency exchange Gemini to facilitate the settlement of credit card transactions using RLUSD on XRP Ledger.
This partnership enables WebBank to send RLUSD via XRPL to instantly settle everyday payment obligations via Mastercard, eliminating the time-honored delays associated with ACH bank transfers.
CEO of Ripple, Monika Longadescribed the pilot as a “significant step” towards demonstrating how regulated digital assets can accelerate institutional payment processes.
XRP, which is also tied to the company, is trading at $1.90. This represents a decline of 5% over the last 24 hours, in line with the broader cryptocurrency market capitalization correction that has seen Bitcoin (BTC) and other leading altcoins return to the downtrend seen over the past two months.
Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com
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