Bessent Tells Ripple Conference Stablecoins Will Be “An Important Source Of Funding For The Treasury.” Here’s What It Means For XRP Holders
Scott Bessent stood on Ripple's own stage and told the crypto industry that stablecoins will fund the U.S. government, but whether that Washington endorsement actually puts money in XRP holders' pockets is a far more complicated question.
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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent used Ripple’s own stage to describe dollar stablecoins as a new group of buyers for U.S. government debt. He opened Ripple’s Swell conference at The Shed in New York on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026, alongside Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, and said: “I think it’s going to be an important source of funding for the Treasury,” according to CoinDesk.
That matters for holders of XRP (CRYPTO:XRP) because Ripple is presenting itself as regulated dollar infrastructure. What nobody knows yet is how much of that activity, and how much of its value, will reach the XRP token.
Bessent Puts Crypto Beside AI and Chips in the Race With China
Bessent placed digital assets in the tech race with China, next to AI and semiconductors. “We will keep our military umbrella, but I think more and more it’s becoming a technology umbrella,” he said. According to Coinpedia, he added, “We are going to win in the digital asset stack,” and said this will “continue to fortify the dollar.”
Bessent said more than 90% of stablecoins are pegged to the U.S. dollar, and most are backed by Treasuries. When emerging markets adopt stablecoins, demand rises for both dollars and Treasuries. He gave no dollar estimate of how much debt stablecoins might buy.
How Stablecoin Reserves Become Treasury Demand
Issuers keep most of their reserves in short-dated government securities. The OCC’s final GENIUS Act rule was issued Oct. 21, 2026 and takes effect January 18, 2027. Under it, eligible reserves include cash, bank deposits and Treasury securities with 93 days or less to maturity, per Crypto News Australia.
By 11:41 AM ET on Oct. 28, Tether (CRYPTO:USDT) had a market cap of $181,610,988,269 and USDC (CRYPTO:USDC) had $71,007,816,749. They are by far the two largest. DefiLlama put the total stablecoin market at $300.359 billion on Oct. 25, as reported by OneBullEx.
Treasury Moves Ahead on Its Own After the CLARITY Act Stalls
The CLARITY Act, the bill meant to set rules for crypto markets, stalled on Sept. 15. The Senate voted 49-50 against taking it up, per Crypto News Australia. Bessent called it a disappointment, per Coinpedia. He said Treasury will use its organizing power to bring the SEC and CFTC together and close the gaps through regulation. Treasury will also push for industry standards to stop crypto firms from being “debanked.”
What Ripple’s Swell Announcements Mean for XRP Holders
Ripple announced several deals during the conference, per Coinpedia:
- Final OCC approval for Ripple National Trust Bank. The bank will manage the reserves of Ripple USD and offer federally supervised custody.
- Ripple infrastructure is coming to Robinhood Markets (NASDAQ:HOOD | HOOD Price Prediction), including RLUSD settlement on the XRP Ledger, prime brokerage and treasury operations.
- A wider relationship with BNY (NYSE:BK), which already holds most of RLUSD’s reserves. It now covers custody and tokenized trade finance using RLUSD, XRP and the XRP Ledger.
- A Ripple Treasury product that lets companies earn yield on idle cash outside banking hours using stablecoins.
RLUSD is a stablecoin pegged to the dollar. XRP is a separate token with a floating price, so stablecoin growth does not automatically lift XRP. As Coinpedia framed it, the key question is how much dollar activity flows through the XRP Ledger and how much value the token captures. XRP traded at $1.31 on Oct. 28. Bessent spoke about stablecoins as a whole. The stalled CLARITY Act and the push for SEC and CFTC coordination will shape how tokens like XRP are regulated.
Why Stablecoins Mostly Fund Short-Term Borrowing
Stablecoin demand comes mainly from two issuers and goes into very short-dated bills. That money funds the short end of the yield curve, where the 1-month par yield was 4.1% on Oct. 27. Long-term borrowing still has to find other buyers: the 10-year yield was 4.99% and the 20-year was 5.34%. The stablecoin market can also shrink, which would cut reserve demand for bills.
What Investors Should Take From Bessent’s Remarks
Washington now treats stablecoins as dollar infrastructure. That helps regulated issuers with federal charters and Treasury-backed reserves. For XRP holders, several concrete signals are worth watching: RLUSD settlement on the XRP Ledger through Robinhood, the BNY trade finance rollout, and SEC and CFTC coordination ahead of the January 18, 2027 GENIUS Act deadline. How much any single token benefits will depend on how much it actually gets used.
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AJ spent 10 years writing about financial markets at The Motley Fool. His coverage centers on technology stocks and the broader macroeconomic trends, from interest rates to geopolitics, that shape where markets are headed next. AJ is drawn to the stories where big-picture economics and individual companies collide.
