Ripple’s RLUSD Stablecoin Just Passed $2 Billion. What Does That Mean for XRP?
Ripple's stablecoin just hit a milestone that sounds massive for XRP holders, but the real story lies in two specific triggers that could determine whether this growth ever reaches the token's price.
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Ripple recently announced that its RLUSD stablecoin had crossed $2 billion, with close to half of it issued on the XRP Ledger. That is eightfold growth since April 2025, on a stablecoin that did not exist two years ago.
More of that growth is happening on Ripple’s network. RLUSD held on the XRP Ledger has nearly tripled since March, from $340.3 million to $962.8 million, while the total grew by less than a third.
Meanwhile, XRP (CRYPTO:XRP) trades near $1.40 after surging over 40% last week. So what does a $2 billion stablecoin do for the XRP price?
Where RLUSD Is Held Decides What XRP Gets
Ripple launched RLUSD in December 2024, and RWA.xyz valued it at about $2.02 billion on August 25, up 31.45% over the previous 30 days. Roughly $962.8 million of that is issued on the XRP Ledger and $1.05 billion on Ethereum.
XRP only benefits if RLUSD is issued on its own ledger. A stablecoin issued on the Ethereum network pays its fees to ETH and trades against Ethereum, so it does nothing for XRP holders no matter how large it gets.
Then again, the two chains keep trading places. The XRP Ledger led for months until August 21, when Ethereum passed it, and less than $90 million separates them now. RLUSD was mostly an Ethereum asset until this year, which was the case against it doing much for XRP.
Meanwhile, the tokens are being used. RLUSD moved $11.81 billion across 1.39 million transfers in the 30 days to August 25, spread across roughly 84,630 holders. On the XRP Ledger it accounts for more than 90% of all stablecoin supply, which lifted the network past Stellar, previously the largest chain for stablecoins outside the majors.
Why the Trading Pair Does More for XRP Than Fees
Every time someone moves between RLUSD and XRP on the ledger’s exchange, they are buying or selling XRP. That pair handled roughly $900 million in the six months to late June and accounts for close to 90% of all RLUSD trading on the XRP Ledger.
However, that works out to about $150 million a month against the $12.7 billion XRP trades in a day, so the pair is small next to XRP’s wider market. It is still demand you can measure, and it grows as RLUSD grows.
Meanwhile, fees do almost nothing by comparison. According to CoinGecko, about $4,659 has been recorded across the entire XRP Ledger over 24 hours, covering every transaction on the network, not just RLUSD’s. Against XRP’s market value near $88 billion, that barely registers. Ripple built the ledger to move money cheaply, so the fees stay low by design.
The bridge traffic is worth less than it looks too. Stablecoins and tokenized assets pass through XRP for a few seconds to settle, which lifts transaction counts without leaving anyone holding the token.
The Lending Protocol That Would Give XRP a Reason to Be Held
XRP has always had a problem that RLUSD does not solve. Payments pass through the token in seconds and nobody has a reason to keep it afterwards, which is why network growth has never lifted the price for long.
Ripple’s lending protocol is aimed at that. Built on two ledger standards, XLS-65 and XLS-66, it would let holders deposit tokens into pools that lend them out on fixed terms, with RLUSD among the assets those pools hold. That would give idle XRP a way to earn interest for the first time, which is a reason to keep the token instead of moving it on.
However, none of it is live yet. The amendment needs more than 80% of validators to approve it and hold that support for two consecutive weeks before it activates.
The ledger is growing regardless. Messari reported the XRP Ledger closing the first quarter with $2.25 billion in tokenized real-world assets, an all-time high and up 124% on the previous quarter. That took it from the seventh-largest network for tokenized assets to fourth.
So What Does RLUSD’s $2 Billion Mean for XRP?
RLUSD passing $2 billion helps XRP, but far less than $2 billion sounds. The trading pair moves about $150 million a month through XRP, which is measurable but small against the $12.7 billion XRP trades daily, and the fees the whole ledger collects come to $4,659 a day.
Ripple has built the infrastructure ahead of the demand it is meant to serve, and two markers show whether that demand follows. The first is the lending amendment clearing 80% of validators and holding it for two weeks, which would give people a reason to hold XRP instead of passing it through. The second is the XRP Ledger taking back the RLUSD lead it lost to Ethereum on August 21.
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Sam Daodu is a crypto analyst who's spent nearly a decade making blockchain understandable—no easy task when most whitepapers read like fever dreams. He writes for 24/7 Wall St., covering Bitcoin, altcoins, and crypto market analysis for investors. Before crypto, he was a tech writer (back when explaining "the cloud" was peak innovation). Since 2018, he's written for CoinTelegraph, Yahoo Finance, The Block, Cryptonews, Zypto, Rain, and more—basically anywhere people want crypto news without the headache. Sam runs MacLabs Marketing, a content agency for crypto brands tired of sounding like AI wrote their website. He also publishes free crypto education on his site for Web3 enthusiasts who think "gas fees" is a typo. When he's not writing or staring at charts, Sam's either: - Watching anime (currently convinced One Piece has better tokenomics than most altcoins) - At the gym sculpting himself into a Greek god - Listening to the music your mum warned you only bad boys listen to Connect: LinkedIn | Email | MacLabs Marketing
