Ripple is pushing its dollar stablecoin deeper into the multichain world, expanding RLUSD — the U.S. dollar-backed token valued at roughly $1.3 billion — onto several Ethereum layer-2 networks using Wormhole’s cross-chain tooling.
What’s happening
- Ripple said Monday it’s beginning a test phase to bring RLUSD (pegged at about $0.9997) to L2s including Optimism, Coinbase’s Base, Kraken’s Ink and Uniswap’s Unichain. A broader rollout is planned for next year, subject to final approval from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).
- The pilot leverages Wormhole’s Native Token Transfers (NTT) standard, enabling RLUSD to move natively between chains — no wrapping or synthetic versions required. Ripple says this preserves liquidity and regulatory controls while unlocking DeFi use cases across faster, cheaper L2 environments.
Why it matters
- Stablecoins remain a core “plumbing” layer between traditional finance and crypto, with the market around $300 billion. RLUSD was previously available on Ethereum and the XRP Ledger and is issued under a NYDFS Trust Charter.
- Ripple also recently secured initial approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for a federal trust bank charter — a move the firm says would make RLUSD the first stablecoin regulated at both state and federal levels if fully approved.
Product and ecosystem impacts
- The expansion will also support a wrapped form of XRP (wXRP), simplifying on-chain UX for swaps, lending and payments. Ripple says retail users could, for example, convert wXRP to RLUSD inside a DeFi app on Optimism or Base without leaving the chain.
- By using native token transfers, Ripple aims to reduce friction and fragmentation that comes with wrapped assets, while maintaining compliance controls that matter to institutional users.
Ripple’s take
“Stablecoins are the gateway to DeFi and institutional adoption,” Jack McDonald, Ripple’s SVP of stablecoins, said in a statement. “By launching RLUSD — the first U.S. Trust Regulated stablecoin on these L2 networks — we are not just expanding utility; we are setting the definitive standard where compliance and onchain efficiency converge.”
Bottom line
If the pilot and regulatory steps proceed as planned, RLUSD’s move to multiple L2s could boost its utility across a broader set of DeFi rails, bring more on-chain liquidity for XRP-linked products, and mark another step in Ripple’s broader multichain strategy.
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