Ripple’s RLUSD Market Cap Passes $515M, Flips TrueUSD – Crypto News – Crypto News
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Ripple’s RLUSD Market Cap Passes $515M, Flips TrueUSD Ripple’s RLUSD Market Cap Passes $515M, Flips TrueUSD

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Ripple’s RLUSD Market Cap Passes $515M, Flips TrueUSD – Crypto News

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Last week, the firm announced BNY Mellon will be the custodian of RLUSD’s reserves.

The market capitalization of Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin just rose above $515 million this week, flipping troubled stablecoin TrueUSD (TUSD).

The market cap milestone follows Ripple’s decision last week to custody RLUSD’s reserve assets with BNY Mellon, a global financial services giant. It also comes in the wake of news of Ripple’s application for a U.S. banking license the previous week.

RLUSD’s market capitalization grew from $309 million at the beginning of June to $517.4 million as of today, July 14 — a 67% increase.

RLUSD market cap 1-month chart. Source: CoinGecko

TrueUSD, meanwhile, has been stuck in the $490 million range for a year after massive sell-offs and depegging incidents, amid concerns about its reserves. It had reached a market cap of $3.3 billion in October, before tumbling off a cliff. Tron founder Justin Sun reportedly bailed the stablecoin project out after some of its backing assets were caught up in a bankruptcy.

While RLUSD’s growth has been steady, it is still far behind industry leaders USDT, with a market cap of $159 billion, and USDC, with $63 billion.

RLUSD is currently the ninth-largest stablecoin by market cap.

Partnering with BNY Mellon

Ripple’s stablecoin is among the newest, launching in December with a stated focus on cross-border enterprise use cases, rather than the consumer market.

The recent partnership with BNY Mellon provides Ripple with a well established TradFi custodian, nearly as old as the country itself, for its reserve assets, which consist of U.S. Treasuries, money market funds and cash.

Jack McDonald, Ripple’s senior vice president of stablecoins, said on X last Thursday: “Institutional stablecoin adoption will only take off with the backing of deeply trusted custodians and platforms.”

In a statement accompanying the news, McDonald added that “BNY brings together demonstrable custody expertise and a strong commitment to financial innovation in this rapidly changing landscape, as well as a forward-thinking approach to digital asset infrastructure, making it the ideal partner for Ripple and RLUSD.”

Ripple has focused heavily on becoming a regulated financial institution. Aside from its recent moves to win a national bank charter and a master account at the Federal Reserve, it has a BitLicense from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), a notoriously tough hurdle to pass.

RLUSD in Action

True to its cross-border payments focus, Ripple is also getting RLUSD out into the field. On Thursday, the firm announced the end of a pilot program led by DIVA Donate, a web3 non-profit that is providing migratory herders in Kenya with drought insurance.

The program allows donors to lock RLUSD stablecoins into a smart contract that automatically pays out to more than 500 pastoralists if there is a drought. Payouts are triggered if Kenyan authorities announce that satellite data show that the vegetation their herds rely on has been damaged by drought, which is increasing due to climate change, the non-profit says.

If, as happened this season, there is no drought, the funds can be withdrawn and rolled over into the next high-risk season’s smart contract.

Ripple’s XRP has been on a tear over the past week on the back of the same developments, growing over 27% to trade near $3.

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