Ripple will launch its own RLUSD stablecoin in the coming weeks

What’s new? The head of the fintech company Ripple, which developed the payment protocol of the same name and the token XRP with a capitalization of $30,9 billion, has announced the imminent launch of the RLUSD stablecoin. According to Brad Garlinghouse, the asset is already in closed beta testing and will be launched in the coming weeks.

Material by The Block

What else is known? Now the leaders of the stablecoin market are centralized coins USDT from Tether and USDC from Circle with a capitalization of $118,2 billion and $35,8 billion, respectively. USDT accounts for about 70% of the total stablecoin supply, while USDC has a 21% share.

The launch of the asset under the ticker RLUSD, which stands for “Real US Dollar,” was announced in April. The asset will be available on the Ethereum network as well as Ripple’s own blockchain called XRP Ledger (XRPL).

Also in preparation for the launch of the stablecoin, Ripple bought New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) regulated institutional digital asset storage platform Standard Custody. Standard Custody CEO Jack McDonald has been named head of Ripple’s stablecoin division.

During the Korea Blockchain Week event in Seoul, Garlinghouse said the company thought about releasing its own stablecoin with a peg to the US dollar 18 months ago when the USDC temporarily lost its peg to a fiat currency, dropping below $1.

He noted that Ripple has an opportunity to enter this market because it is a trusted company and already works with many financial institutions around the world.

Garlinghouse also reiterated that Ripple does not intend to go public through an IPO in the US because of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) hostility towards the cryptocurrency industry.

In particular, he referred to the situation with the leading US crypto exchange Coinbase, led by Brian Armstrong, which the SEC allowed to list on Nasdaq, but then sued the exchange “e for the same things they approved.”

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“One of the first pieces of advice I give entrepreneurs who ask me about starting crypto companies is: don’t incorporate in the United States. You’re just asking for more legal bills,” Garlinghouse repeated his previously voiced theses.

He also said that by his actions, SEC head Gary Gensler, as a Democrat, has hurt his party in the current election cycle, and regardless of the outcome of the presidential election, the commission will be headed by other people.

In August, a court ordered Ripple to pay a $125 million fine in the SEC’s lawsuit. The parties had been litigating since late 2020: then the regulator accused the company of illegally selling securities in the form of XRP tokens, which raised $1,3 billion. Years later, the court partially sided with Ripple, saying that retail sales, as opposed to institutional sales, were not a violation. The SEC demanded a $2 billion fine, but the company managed to dispute the amount.

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“There aren’t that many companies that actually can stand up to a bully. The SEC has a lot of power, and it takes a lot of money and a lot of conviction to fight that. But we really did from the very, very beginning believe that we were on the right side of the law and that we’d be on the right side of history,” the senior executive emphasized.

At the same time, Garlinghouse believes that in the next five years in the United States, there will be a more cryptocurrency-friendly regulation, but it will not come from the SEC, but from Congress. In particular, the entrepreneur mentioned the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act, known as FIT 21, previously approved by the House of Representatives.