RLUSD Issuance Hits Record; Why It Is Flowing to Ethereum

According to DeFi Llama's tally, $1.4 billion of the RLUSD currently in circulation exists on Ethereum.

This shows that Ripple's dollar token has significantly expanded its share of the digital asset market.

In the distribution of RLUSD across ledgers, Ethereum's share grew sharply compared with late July. Of the $1.58 billion in RLUSD issued at the end of July, 56% was on the XRP Ledger. Of the $2.42 billion in supply as of September 14, the newly minted portion included $670 million flowing to Ethereum and $170 million to the XRP Ledger.

This is believed to stem from a usage pattern in which institutional users mainly use RLUSD via Ethereum while retail users use the XRP Ledger.

The fundamental reason RLUSD has accumulated on Ethereum is not Ethereum's inherent appeal. It is because Ave Horizon, the gateway through which institutions borrow dollars, was built on Ethereum first.

Ave Horizon is an institution-only Treasury-collateralized lending venue, offering loans of USDC, GHO, RLUSD and other dollar currencies against tokenized Treasuries such as those from Superstate, Circle, and Banexcoin.

This means only a small part of Ethereum's native capabilities is being used, and it suggests Ripple exercises strong control over the institutional lending process.

Ethereum is a financial execution platform designed to run programs on top of the ledger rather than to carry money. The XRP Ledger, by contrast, functions as a high-speed ledger optimized for asset transfer.

Therefore, ranking the two ledgers by the same yardstick overlooks the differences in their design purposes and functions. One is a layer that runs programs, and the other is a layer that moves money, each playing a distinct role.

Ripple describes RLUSD as digital cash and XRP as the asset that moves money. RLUSD increases where money stays, while XRP connects those places to one another.

Ripple's main customers are corporate treasury teams, and RLUSD and XRP are used complementarily for large-scale payments and collateral.

The license requires operations to begin within 18 months, and it will be run under joint state and federal supervision.

RLUSD is expected to play a central role in Ripple Prime and the Ave institutional gateway.

Last year alone, Ripple invested more than $2.45 billion in acquisitions.

Through these deals, trade settlement, treasury, and custody functions have been consolidated within one company, and XRP is used when moving funds between these gateways.

With 91% approval from validators, a permissioned trading venue is being pursued.

This aims to establish categories by use, such as settlement, tokenized assets, and collateral, bringing them within regulation: RLUSD fills that role, while XRP handles moving money and pledging it as collateral once inside.

Speakers from major domestic and international financial firms, including K Bank, will take part.

Key agenda items at the conference will include RLUSD remittances, institutional adoption, and tokenization of real-world assets.

Clearpool and Cauldron are preparing RLUSD-based lending services. The money lent is RLUSD, Cauldron screens the borrowers, and Ripple participates as an investor putting money into the fund.

The two ledgers are not in competition but in a complementary relationship, each composing the digital finance ecosystem through its specialized function.

Recently, XRP's price has been affected by macroeconomic conditions and market events.

Therefore, short-term price swings and the scale of RLUSD issuance have no direct correlation, and as functionality strengthens, price is expected to follow naturally.