Ripple’s RLUSD scheduled for Dec. 17 launch

Ripple’s U.S. dollar stablecoin will become available on the XRP Ledger and Ethereum blockchain starting Tuesday, December 17.

Digital payment behemoth Ripple (XRP) has declared Dec. 17 as the debut date for its U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin RLUSD in the Americas, the U.K., the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific markets.

RLUSD’s launch follows last week’s final regulatory approval from the New York Department of Financial Services. NYDFS’s greenlight moved the stablecoin from its test phase to a broad rollout across several platforms like Uphold, MoonPay, Bitso, Bullish, Mercado, and CoinMENA.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the XRP company intentionally launched its RLUSD stablecoin “under the NYDFS limited purpose trust company charter,” globally considered the regulatory gold standard.

As the U.S. moves toward clearer regulations, we expect to see greater adoption of stablecoins like RLUSD, which offer real utility and are backed by years of trust and expertise in the industry.

Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple CEO

Stablecoins serve as an essential liquidity and transaction bridge between digital asset markets and traditional finance. They provide a stable-price blockchain asset leveraged for settlement in both web3-native and real-world contexts.

Institutions tap stablecoins for cheaper cross-border transactions, prompted by a worldwide shift toward regulatory clarity and policy standardization for the industry. U.S. policymakers in the Federal Senate and Wyoming State House mulled stablecoin frameworks. 

While U.S. stablecoin rules may benefit RLUSD, the tokens will be unavailable in its early days, or even months. The startup has yet to secure the required licenses and approval mandated by the E.U.’s MiCA.

Launching in the U.S. could pit XRP’s operator against stablecoin titans in the $200 billion sector. Tether leads the industry with its $140 billion market cap (USDT), and (USDC) issued by Circle boasts an existing presence of U.S. platforms like Coinbase.

Ripple CTO DVID Schwartz cautioned investors about RLUSD demand-driven price volatility. Schwartz said there may be supply shortages in the days following the launch.

“Please don’t FOMO into a stablecoin. This is not an opportunity to get rich,” Schwartz warned speculators willing to splurge $1,200 for a bite of RLUSD’s supply, hoping to get gains.

The company also named two new stablecoin advisory board members in former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan, and Kenneth Montgomery, former COO of Boston’s Federal Reserve Bank. Rajan and Montgomery join names like Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen and former FDIC chair Sheila Bair.