Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin is quickly increasing on Ethereum slightly than the corporate’s native XRP Ledger (XRPL).
In response to CryptoSlate information, RLUSD’s whole circulating provide has surged to $1.26 billion inside 12 months of its launch. Of this, roughly $1.03 billion, or 82% of the overall provide, resides on Ethereum, whereas the $235 million steadiness is on XRPL.
These numbers present that the market appears to favor the deep liquidity and composability of the Ethereum Digital Machine over the extra compliance-focused structure of the XRPL.
Why RLUSD is rising on Ethereum
The first driver of this disparity is the maturity of the underlying monetary stack.
On Ethereum, RLUSD entered an surroundings the place greenback liquidity is already entrenched. Information from DeFiLlama confirms that Ethereum continues to steer all chains in whole worth locked (TVL) and stablecoin provide, offering a turnkey ecosystem for brand new belongings.
So, any new stablecoin that may plug into main DeFi protocols like Aave, Curve, and Uniswap instantly advantages from current routing engines, collateral frameworks, and danger fashions.
RLUSD’s presence on Aave and Curve confirms this. The USDC/RLUSD pool on Curve now holds roughly $74 million in liquidity, rating it among the many bigger stablecoin swimming pools on the platform.
For institutional treasuries, market makers, and arbitrage desks, this depth is non-negotiable. It ensures low-slippage execution for trades within the tens of thousands and thousands, facilitating foundation trades and yield-farming methods that drive trendy crypto capital markets.
Alternatively, the XRPL remains to be within the nascent phases of constructing a DeFi basis. Its protocol-level automated market maker (AMM) went dwell solely in 2024. So all RLUSD-related swimming pools on the ledger, such because the USD/RLUSD pair created in January 2025, nonetheless undergo from shallow depth and restricted follow-through.
Furthermore, the XRPL AMM design has not but attracted the liquidity supplier density seen in EVM ecosystems.
Consequently, a greenback of RLUSD positioned on XRPL presently finds far fewer venues for swaps, leverage, or yield than the identical greenback deployed on Ethereum.
RLUSD’s rising consumer base on Ethereum
Critics may argue that RLUSD’s Ethereum provide is merely “vainness metrics,” massive sums minted however sitting idle.
Nonetheless, a deeper evaluation of on-chain switch information refutes this. RLUSD is exhibiting a real product-market match with Ethereum, characterised by excessive velocity and recurring utilization.
In response to Token Terminal, weekly RLUSD switch quantity on Ethereum now averages roughly $1.0 billion, a dramatic improve from the $66 million common seen at first of the 12 months.
The info exhibits an obvious structural shift of a gentle upward development by the primary half of 2025, adopted by a “re-basing” to a considerably increased flooring within the second half.
Crucially, current weeks present exercise clustering round this elevated stage slightly than spiking and reverting. In market construction phrases, a rising baseline sometimes alerts a transition from a distribution section to a utility section.
This suggests that the token is being utilized in ongoing, recurring flows, similar to institutional settlement and industrial funds, slightly than remoted speculative occasions.
Switch counts help this thesis. Weekly transactions on Ethereum now common 7,000, up from 240 in January.
The truth that switch counts are rising in parallel with quantity is a crucial well being indicator. If quantity have been rising whereas counts remained flat, it might recommend a market dominated by a couple of whales shifting large sums. As a substitute, the concurrent rise factors to broader participation.
Moreover, the holder information recommend a wholesome dispersion of danger. In response to information from Etherscan, Ripple’s RLUSD has attracted roughly 6,400 on-chain holders on Ethereum as of late November 2025, up from simply 750 at first of the 12 months.
Whereas the provision development has been pushed by “chunky” batch issuances slightly than drip minting, the holder depend has adopted a clean upward curve.
The friction between RLUSD and XRPL
The structural divergence between the 2 networks explains why the “permissionless” development loop has favored Ethereum.
On Ethereum, RLUSD capabilities as a regular ERC-20 token. Wallets, custodians, accounting middleware, and DeFi aggregators are already optimized for this commonplace.
As soon as a protocol like Curve “wires in” a token, it turns into a part of the usual dollar-pair universe alongside USDC and USDT, accessible to any deal with with out prior authorization.
Alternatively, XRPL’s design selections, whereas technically strong, impose considerably increased friction on the consumer.
To carry RLUSD on the native ledger, customers typically should preserve an XRP steadiness to fulfill reserve necessities and configure a selected trustline to the issuer. If the issuer allows the `RequireAuth` setting, which is a characteristic designed for strict compliance and granular management, accounts have to be explicitly allow-listed earlier than they will obtain tokens.
So, whereas Ripple notes that these options enchantment to banks that require express management, they act as a brake on natural adoption.
Basically, the compliance instruments that make XRPL enticing to regulated entities are the identical options that decelerate wallet-to-wallet distribution.
In a market the place capital seeks the trail of least resistance, the operational burden of trustlines renders XRPL much less aggressive for the high-frequency, automated flows that outline DeFi.
RLUSD’s path to development
Regardless of the ledger imbalance, the general trajectory of RLUSD places Ripple inside putting distance of a significant market tier.
Token Terminal has said that Ripple would cement itself because the third-largest stablecoin issuer globally, behind solely the incumbents Tether and Circle, if RLLUSD’s market cap have been to develop 10x from present ranges.
Contemplating this, RLUSD’s development relies upon closely on whether or not Ripple can leverage its Ethereum success to ultimately jumpstart its native chain.
A base-case projection for the following six months sees RLUSD’s Ethereum provide climb from roughly $1.0 billion to a variety of $1.4 billion to $1.7 billion. This assumes that Curve liquidity stays within the $60 million to $100 million band and that CEX and OTC demand continues to develop.
Beneath this path, XRPL would doubtless see its swimming pools accumulate extra liquidity over time however stay a small fraction of the mixture issuance.
In the meantime, a extra aggressive “catch-up” situation for XRPL would require deliberate market intervention. If Ripple or its companions decide to multi-month AMM reward packages and efficiently masks trustline configurations behind single-click pockets interfaces, the native ledger might start to erode Ethereum’s lead.
With these levers, XRPL liquidity might plausibly attain $500 million and declare as much as 25% of the overall provide.
Nonetheless, the draw back danger for the native ledger is actual. If Ethereum cements its lead and the Curve USDC/RLUSD pool expands past $150 million, the community results might turn into insurmountable. In that situation, Ethereum might retain 80% to 90% of the provision indefinitely.
For now, Ripple finds itself in a paradoxical place: to reach its ambition to turn into a top-tier stablecoin issuer, it should depend on the infrastructure of its greatest rival.
