Key Takeaways
- RLUSD supply hit about $2.57B on Nov. 4, up roughly $972M from $1.59B on Aug. 6, Defillama data shows.
- Over the same 90 days, USDT supply fell about $5.2B and USDC dropped roughly $900M.
- Ripple’s OCC trust bank approval on Oct. 26 puts RLUSD reserves under federal supervision going forward.
Growing Quietly
Ripple USD (RLUSD), the dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by Ripple, has silently become the fastest-growing major stablecoin of the past quarter. Its circulating supply officially crossed $2.5B this week, which means it now leads all major stablecoins in 90-day net inflows.
At press time, RLUSD’s supply stood at about $2.57 billion, compared with $1.59 billion on Aug. 6, a gain of roughly $972 million in 90 days.
How the Numbers Stack up
The growth stands out because most of the stablecoin market seems to have gone the other way, with Defillama’s stablecoin dashboard showing Tether’s USDT, the largest dollar token, at about $178.3 billion, down roughly $5.2 billion over the same 90 days. Circle’s USDC slipped by about $900 million to roughly $70.9 billion.
Among the other large issuers, Ethena’s USDe was the closest rival, adding about $690 million. World Liberty Financial’s USD1 fell about $200 million, Global Dollar (USDG) lost around $660 million, and Paypal’s PYUSD was little changed.
In short, RLUSD’s gain was larger than any of them.
Ripple’s token has also doubled this year, with onchain data putting its supply at about $1.28 billion on Jan. 1, meaning it has grown about 100% in 2026. Roughly $1.72 billion now sits on Ethereum and about $870 million on the XRP Ledger (XRPL), Ripple’s own blockchain.
A Choppy Week Inside a Strong Quarter
Not everything has been smooth for RLUSD as its supply dropped from about $2.61 billion on Oct. 30 to $2.42 billion on Oct. 31, during the chaos that followed Binance’s $6.3 billion hack. Ripple was one of the issuers that moved to contain that fallout, with Bitcoin.com News reporting that Ripple and World Liberty helped freeze the hacker’s loot.
Supply, however, recovered fast and Ripple minted $110 million in RLUSD in a single transaction as Binance reopened XRP withdrawals, and consequently, RLUSD’s market cap jumped from $2.411 billion to as much as $2.561 billion between 9:00 and 9:05 a.m. UTC on Nov. 2.
The Bank Charter Factor
The growth spurt also coincides with an important regulatory milestone as late last month, Ripple received final approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish Ripple National Trust Bank. Ripple said the federally supervised trust bank will manage RLUSD reserves, act as collateral trustee and offer digital asset custody, while token issuance stays with its New York-regulated entity.
A dollar token with reserves overseen by a federal bank regulator can be easier for compliance teams to approve. Issuer-level freeze powers, like those Ripple used during the Binance incident, are also a control that regulated firms often expect.
What It Means for XRP
RLUSD’s rise has sparked a debate among XRP holders over whether the stablecoin battles with Ripple’s native asset. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has argued that RLUSD solely competes with other stablecoins rather than XRP, while claiming that XRP will become the future institutional gold standard within five years.
For now, the two are moving in different directions as XRP traded near $1.25 on Wednesday, while the stablecoin kept adding supply. More RLUSD on the XRPL does mean more transactions paying network fees in XRP, which is the link bulls point to.
Whether RLUSD can keep its lead depends on how quickly Ripple’s trust bank comes online and whether exchange and payments demand holds after the Binance shock.
