Ripple Labs’ new stablecoin is officially a thing, while Tether is investing in companies that can clear the compliance hurdles Tether finds so insurmountable

On December 17, Ripple formally launched RLUSD, its new U.S. dollar-denominated stablecoin, following Ripple’s declaration of its intentions in April.

Stablecoin Headline News for December: RLUSD Launches, Tether Invests in StablR, and More

As 2024 draws to a close, here's a quick rundown of the latest stablecoin headlines.

Ripple Launches RLUSD Stablecoin, Picks NYDFS as Regulator

On December 17, Ripple formally launched RLUSD, its new U.S. dollar-denominated stablecoin, following Ripple’s declaration of its intentions in April. The New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) officially added RLUSD to its Greenlist of approved coins alongside BTC, ETH, and stablecoins issued by Gemini, Paxos Trust, and PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL).

Ripple said RLUSD is being issued on both the Ethereum network and Ripple’s own XRP Ledger, and will be “initially available on Uphold, Bitso, MoonPay, Archax, and CoinMENA, with additional listings on platforms such as Bullish, Bitstamp, Mercado Bitcoin, Independent Reserve, Zero Hash and others expected in the coming weeks.”

Notably absent from the above list are prominent U.S. exchanges Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN), Kraken, and Gemini, which may or may not have qualms about listing competitors to their preferred stablecoins, including Circle’s USDC, which is issued via a Coinbase partnership, and Tether’s USDT.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse stated that his company picking NYDFS as its stablecoin regulator was “a deliberate choice” given the generally unforgiving reputation that NYDFS holds following years of enforcement actions against crypto firms.

These actions included ordering Paxos to distance itself from the Binance exchange, with which Paxos had partnered on the BUSD stablecoin. Binance had gone rogue by issuing a ‘pegged’ version of BUSD while neglecting to maintain adequate fiat reserves to ensure each of these pegged-BUSD’s was backed 1:1 with U.S. dollars.

Garlinghouse said the NYDFS stamp of approval would help position RLUSD to take advantage of the increased acceptance that stablecoins are expected to enjoy under Donald Trump’s second term as U.S. president. Trump has vowed to loosen regulatory constraints on all things’ crypto,’ including installing a friendlier chairman at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), with which Ripple remains locked in litigation.

“We believe that having a stablecoin that is fully regulated, fully transparent, and fully liquid will be a key component of that,” Garlinghouse said during a December 16 press briefing.

“We are very excited about the opportunities that lie ahead for RLUSD and the broader stablecoin market in 2024 and beyond.”

Ripple has pledged that RLUSD will be “fully backed by U.S. dollar deposits, U.S. government bonds, and cash equivalents.” Ripple will also publish “monthly, third-party attestations of RLUSD’s reserve assets, conducted by an independent auditing firm.”

In addition to launching RLUSD, Ripple also announced the addition of two more members to its stablecoin advisory board: Raghuram Rajan, former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, and Kenneth Montgomery, former VP/COO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

Rajan and Montgomery join Sheila Bair (ex-chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation), David Puth (vice-chair of Partners Capital and ex-CEO of the defunct Centre Consortium), and Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen on the advisory board.

‘Please Don’t FOMO Into a Stablecoin’

Ripple's RLUSD announcement sparked a surge in the value of the company’s mainstay XRP token, which topped $2.70 at one point—a high not seen since January 2018—although it has since surrendered some of those gains.

Stranger still, some overexcited Ripple fans were bidding ridiculous sums in an apparent bid to get their hands on the first RLUSD tokens to come down the chute. At one point, someone appeared willing to pay the equivalent of US$1,200 to acquire a fraction of a single RLUSD, either unaware of or unconcerned by the fact that one RLUSD is worth one U.S. dollar.

Ripple CTO David Schwarz sought to calm the waters by warning that, while “there may be supply shortages [of RLUSD] in the very early days … the price will come back to very close to $1 as soon as supply stabilizes.”

In what might be the quintessential comment on the ridiculousness that pervades everything in ‘crypto,’ Schwarz added the following plea: “If you want to spend a lot of money to get a tiny bit of RLUSD before anyone else does, you can. But please don’t expect the price to stay over $1 once things stabilize … Please don’t FOMO into a stablecoin! This is not an opportunity to get rich.”

Coinbase Delists Tether From European Operations, Binance May Follow Suit

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