Ripple (XRP) announced on Monday that its USD-backed stablecoin, RLUSD, is set to officially launch globally on Tuesday. The stablecoin will initially be available on platforms such as MoonPay, Uphold, CoinMENA, Bitso, and ArchaxEx, with plans to expand to other exchanges in the coming weeks.
This launch follows Ripple’s recent approval from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) on December 10. While the crypto community initially anticipated a December 4 release, the delay raised speculation about Ripple’s compliance process. Ripple emphasized in its announcement that RLUSD is an “enterprise-grade, USD-denominated stablecoin created with trust, utility, and compliance at its core.”
Key Features of RLUSD
RLUSD is designed to maintain a 1:1 peg with the US Dollar, backed by reserves that include US dollar deposits, short-term Treasury bonds, and liquid cash assets. To ensure transparency, Ripple has engaged an independent auditing firm to provide monthly attestations of RLUSD’s reserves.
The stablecoin will be available for use on both the XRP Ledger and Ethereum Mainnet, enabling on-chain users to leverage RLUSD across decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. Ripple also plans to roll out cross-border payment solutions using RLUSD for its customers starting early next year.
Impact on XRP
The launch of RLUSD has generated bullish sentiment for XRP, with the token showing a 1% price increase in the past 24 hours. According to Coinglass, XRP experienced $18.62 million in liquidations during this period, with long positions accounting for $10.14 million and short positions for $8.48 million.
Technically, XRP validated a bullish flag pattern over the weekend, breaking above the flag’s descending trendline. This movement pushed the token to test resistance levels at $2.58 on Monday after rebounding from the 23.6% Fibonacci Retracement level.
If XRP breaks through key resistance levels at $2.58 and $2.92, analysts suggest it could rally to an all-time high of $4.75, supported by strong Relative Strength Index (RSI) and Stochastic Oscillator (Stoch) readings, which indicate dominant bullish momentum.
Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin could further solidify its position in the crypto market while propelling XRP toward significant gains.