Investors can now trade Ripple’s (XRP) new stablecoin after U.S. regulators approved its launch.
The U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin, called ripple USD, or RLUSD, has been issued on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain and XRP ledger, and is now available on some global exchanges.
However, the new stablecoin is not initially available on the cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase (COIN) or Robinhood (HOOD).
The launch of the new stablecoin comes amid elevated hopes in the cryptocurrency industry for friendlier U.S. regulations under president-elect Donald Trump.
The market capitalization for dollar-backed stablecoins has grown 50% this year and about 15% since the November U.S. election.
Tether (USDT) currently dominates the stablecoin market with a 70% share, followed by Circle-issued USDC, which makes up about 20% of the global market.
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies whose underlying value is pegged to another asset, typically the U.S. dollar or price of gold.
Ripple is a 12-year-old business-to-business payments firm that does much of its business outside the U.S., serving banks, payments companies, and other financial institutions.
XRP is the native token, or cryptocurrency of Ripple, and was created by the company’s founders in 2012.
Ripple uses XRP in its cross-border payments business — about 95% of which takes place outside the U.S. and is the largest holder of the XRP cryptocurrency.
Ripple announced earlier this year that it would bring a new stablecoin to what has become an increasingly crowded sector of cryptocurrencies.
In November of this year, Robinhood, crypto exchange Kraken, Galaxy Digital, and others, announced plans to launch a joint dollar-backed stablecoin.
