Upbit has added Ripple USD (RLUSD) to its KRW, BTC and USDT markets, broadening South Korea’s access to the XRP Ledger-based stablecoin.
Key launch details
- Upbit announced the listing on July 28, with trading scheduled to begin at 14:00 KST, contingent on sufficient liquidity. Deposits and withdrawals were to open within two hours of the announcement.
- The exchange accepts only the XRP Ledger version of RLUSD — not the Ethereum or other network variants — and cites the issuer address rMxCKbEDwqr76QuheSUMdEGf4B9xJ8m5De as the supported deposit address.
- Users must supply the correct destination tag when sending RLUSD to Upbit (XRP Ledger exchanges typically use one address for many customers). Unsupported-network deposits may be subject to lengthy return processes, and transfers from exchanges that don’t meet South Korea’s Travel Rule requirements may not be credited. Personal-wallet deposits are limited to addresses whose ownership Upbit has verified.
Opening controls to limit volatility
- Upbit applied several safeguards at launch: buy orders were restricted for roughly five minutes after trading opened, and sell orders priced more than 10% below the previous day’s close were blocked for the same period.
- For about two hours after launch, only limit orders were allowed; market and conditional order types were disabled. Upbit also reserved the right to postpone trading if liquidity thresholds weren’t met.
Pre-open quotes and supply
- At 11:00 KST on the announcement day Upbit quoted RLUSD at 1,468.76 KRW, 0.00001583 BTC and 0.9995 USDT — these were indicative pre-open quotes, not completed trades.
- Market data showed RLUSD trading near its $1 peg. Public figures vary slightly: an estimated circulating supply of about 1.59 billion tokens was reported in market trackers, while Ripple’s transparency page listed 1.5086 billion circulating RLUSD and $1.6191 billion in reserves as of July 16. Ripple says RLUSD is backed by cash and highly liquid, short-term assets held in segregated reserve accounts and publishes monthly third-party reserve reports.
Regulatory and market context
- RLUSD is issued by Standard Custody & Trust Company, a Ripple subsidiary with a New York limited-purpose trust charter; the New York Department of Financial Services lists RLUSD on its virtual currency Greenlist.
- The Upbit listing follows earlier domestic support from Coinone and is part of Ripple’s expanding footprint in South Korea, where the firm has pursued tokenized securities and payment projects.
- The addition of a KRW pair gives Korean traders direct onshore access to RLUSD — without converting funds offshore — and could help price discovery between South Korea’s domestic market and global dollar-stablecoin markets.
Trading activity and outlook
- Earlier reporting from Ripple-backed Evernorth showed $2.5 billion in RLUSD trading on the XRP Ledger during a prior period, with roughly $900 million in RLUSD/XRP activity. Upbit did not provide targets for expected trading volumes or deposits; post-listing order-book depth, volumes and deposit flows will reveal whether the new markets attract sustained interest.
- The exchange will monitor deposits for Travel Rule and source-of-funds compliance. Holders of Ethereum-based RLUSD must bridge or exchange their tokens to the XRP Ledger version before depositing to Upbit.
Bottom line: The Upbit listing makes RLUSD more accessible to Korean traders while enforcing network-specific and compliance controls to manage risk and onboarding. Users should verify the supported XRP Ledger address and destination tag, and ensure they send the correct network version to avoid delays or loss.
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