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Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin is set for its trading debut on Dec. 17 on platforms including Uphold, MoonPay, Archax and CoinMENA, the company said.
Ripple, the blockchain company behind XRP, confirmed that its Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin will begin trading globally tomorrow, Dec. 17.
RLUSD, a new United States dollar-backed stablecoin developed by Ripple, is set for a global exchange debut, the firm announced to Cointelegraph on Monday, Dec. 16.
The announcement came after the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) approved the RLUSD launch, on Dec. 10, greenlighting the stablecoin’s entrance into global financial and cryptocurrency markets.
One trader has set a $1,200 bid for one RLUSD, an early warning sign there could be massive volatility when Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin launches.
Ripple’s chief technology officer, David Schwartz, says there could be potential “supply shortages” in the early days of Ripple’s US Dollar-pegged stablecoin but is warning investors not to “FOMO.”
In a Dec. 15 post to X, Schwartz said he expects outsized volatility for RippleUSD (RLUSD) stablecoin immediately following its launch, with several large orders for the token despite being designed to maintain a 1:1 parity with the US dollar.
He noted that some small initial pre-market bids for the currently unreleased stablecoin were artificially inflating its value before its launch — responding to a post on X, which showed 1 RLUSD being valued at roughly 511 XRP (XRP) — worth $1,244 at current prices — on a Ripple wallet called Xaman.
According to data from CoinMarketCap, XRP has a maximum supply of 100 billion tokens, with approximately 57 billion XRP circulating.
XRP (XRP) experienced a historic rally in November 2024 due to political tailwinds and new ecosystem developments. Georgios Vlachos, co-founder of the Axelar open-source interoperability platform, told Cointelegraph that the upcoming RLUSD stablecoin will likely boost demand for XRP in 2025.
Vlachos said that many people, including those in emerging economies, use stablecoins as a method of transaction and a store of value. RLUSD transactions and remittances will mostly settle on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) and the XRP-EVM sidechain, driving demand for XRP. Vlachos told Cointelegraph:
XRP climbed to a seven-year high of approximately $2.90 on Dec. 3, 2024, but pulled back to current price levels after the Relative Strength Index (RSI) hit 95, indicating the asset was overbought. Despite the pullback, several catalysts have sustained investor attention for XRP going into 2025.
Bitcoin’s rally above $100,000 has improved sentiment, triggering a strong recovery in several altcoins.
Bitcoin (BTC) found support near $94,000 on Dec. 10, and the bulls made a solid recovery on Dec. 11. The price soared back above the psychologically crucial level of $100,000 after November’s inflation report met economists’ projections. According to the FedWatch Tool, the probability of a 25-basis point rate cut in the next meeting has risen to more than 96%. That could prove to be bullish for risky assets.
Bitwise investment chief Matt Hougan and research head Ryan Rasmussen said in a report that Bitcoin could cross $200,000 by the end of 2025. Along with Bitcoin, the duo is also bullish on Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL), expecting them to rise to $7,000 and $750, respectively.
Crypto market data daily view. Source: Coin360