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Last week, the firm announced BNY Mellon will be the custodian of RLUSD\u2019s reserves.\n<\/p>\n
The market capitalization of Ripple\u2019s RLUSD<\/a> stablecoin just rose above<\/a> $515 million this week, flipping troubled stablecoin TrueUSD<\/a> (TUSD).<\/p>\n The market cap milestone follows Ripple\u2019s decision<\/a> last week to custody RLUSD\u2019s reserve assets with BNY Mellon, a global financial services giant. It also comes in the wake of news of Ripple\u2019s application<\/a> for a U.S. banking license the previous week.<\/p>\n RLUSD\u2019s market capitalization grew from $309 million at the beginning of June to $517.4 million as of today, July 14 \u2014\u00a0a 67% increase.<\/p>\n TrueUSD, meanwhile, has been stuck in the $490 million range for a year after massive<\/a> sell-offs and depegging incidents, amid concerns<\/a> 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<\/a> the stablecoin project out after some of its backing assets were caught up in a bankruptcy.<\/p>\n While RLUSD\u2019s growth has been steady, it is still far behind industry leaders USDT, with a market cap of $159 billion, and USDC, with $63 billion.<\/p>\n RLUSD is currently the ninth-largest <\/a>stablecoin by market cap.<\/p>\n Ripple\u2019s stablecoin is among the newest, launching in December<\/a> with a stated focus on cross-border enterprise use cases, rather than the consumer market.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Jack McDonald, Ripple\u2019s senior vice president of stablecoins, said<\/a> on X last Thursday: \u201cInstitutional stablecoin adoption will only take off with the backing of deeply trusted custodians and platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n In a statement<\/a> accompanying the news, McDonald added that \u201cBNY 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.\u201d <\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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<\/a> program led by DIVA Donate, a web3 non-profit that is providing migratory herders in Kenya with drought insurance.<\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n If, as happened this season, there is no drought, the funds can be withdrawn and rolled over into the next high-risk season\u2019s smart contract.<\/p>\nPartnering with BNY Mellon<\/h2>\n
RLUSD in Action<\/h2>\n