Ripple Mints Another 50k RLUSD, Stablecoin Supply Now at $48M

• Ripple has minted 50,000 RLUSD tokens, increasing the total supply to 48.6 million.
• The minting is part of Ripple’s testing phase for RLUSD, aimed at facilitating secure cross-border payments.
• CEO Brad Garlinghouse emphasizes the company’s focus on expanding the stablecoin market rather than competing with existing players.

Ripple has minted another 50,000 RLUSD tokens, increasing its stablecoin supply. The minting was confirmed on the Ethereum blockchain by a community-based tracker and recorded at block height 21041720. This process involved the transfer of tokens to a designated wallet.

This issuance is part of Ripple’s strategy in the ongoing testing phase before unveiling RLUSD for public use. By offering RLUSD, Ripple aims to support enterprises and financial institutions in executing secure, large-scale cross-border payments.

Ripple Expands RLUSD Supply to $48M

The latest minting is significantly smaller than previous ones. On October 16, Ripple minted 4 million RLUSD in one transaction. The day before, Ripple had minted a massive 9 million RLUSD tokens in another single transaction. Even more staggering, 18 million tokens were minted earlier on October 15, bringing the total minted on that day to 27 million RLUSD tokens.

With the latest record, the total circulating supply of RLUSD is 48.6 million tokens, according to Etherscan. 

It is worth noting that the minting activities of RLUSD are often followed by a series of transfers to unknown wallets. These transactions typically involve thousands of RLUSD, including a recent transfer of 100,000 RLUSD on October 19.

This series of minting events reflects Ripple’s commitment to thoroughly testing of RLUSD ahead of its full public launch. Ripple began testing RLUSD on both the XRP Ledger and Ethereum mainnet in early August, and the stablecoin remains in private beta on both blockchains. 

Garlinghouse on Ripple’s Strategic Push for Stablecoins

In a recent interview with the Thinking Crypto podcast, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse addressed the significance of the RLUSD stablecoin within Ripple’s vision for payments. He pointed out that stablecoins have been a fundamental component of Ripple’s payment operations, mentioning that their institutional activities once represented 20% of the total USDC minted.

Garlinghouse referred to the banking crisis and the de-pegging of USDC as key indicators of market potential, particularly in light of Ripple’s strong financial position and liquidity. He clarified that Ripple’s goal is not to compete directly with established stablecoins like Tether but to foster overall market growth.

He also suggested that while Tether may continue to expand, its market share could eventually decrease, allowing for increased liquidity on the XRPL, which would ultimately benefit the broader XRP ecosystem.