Ripple's (XRP) much-anticipated stablecoin, Ripple USD (RLUSD), has failed to gain traction since its mid-December launch.

Despite the well-capitalized company's billions in funding and decade of experience in the blockchain industry, the XRP token hasn't even captured a 0.04% market share of the stablecoin industry.

Bitcoin (BTC) maximalists have been celebrating the recent failure of centralized stablecoins like tether (USDT) to maintain their dollar pegs. Meanwhile, XRP fans have been eagerly awaiting the launch of Ripple’s own stablecoin, hoping that it will finally gain a significant market share in the stablecoin industry.

Unfortunately, despite being launched in mid-December 2023, Ripple USD (RLUSD) has failed to gain any meaningful traction in the market. Despite being backed by a company with billions in funding and a decade of experience in the blockchain industry, the XRP token has yet to capture even 0.04% of the stablecoin market.

As of March 8, RLUSD’s market capitalization remains below $75 million. To put this into perspective, the market cap of tether alone is $137 billion.

While Ripple advertises its new stablecoin as an enterprise-grade solution designed to meet the needs of institutional financial use cases, its lackluster performance raises questions about the demand for another USD proxy in an already crowded sector.

Discouragingly, only a small number of exchanges list RLUSD for trading, and a significant portion of its trading volume is concentrated on exchanges in which Ripple previously invested, such as Bitstamp and Bitso.

The billionaire-backed RLUSD stablecoin

As the conductor of the world’s first multi-billion dollar Initial Coin Offering (ICO), Ripple now employs over 900 people and has also invested $600 million into various crypto companies like two of its founders, Jed McCaleb and Chris Larsen, who are both billionaires.

Two of Ripple’s portfolio companies, Bitstamp and Bitso, account for one-fifth of RLUSD’s trading volume, according to CoinGecko data. Additionally, the EOS-friendly Bullish exchange contributes to a large portion of RLUSD liquidity.

RLUSD will destroy tether! This is why. pic.twitter.com/dEfRcpQKd7

Interestingly, failing to gain listings on several major crypto exchanges may be contributing to the stablecoin’s difficulty in attracting attention and competing with its rivals. Moreover, the thin liquidity on its trading pairs has also shown slight fluctuations from its intended $1 price.

Since CoinGecko began tracking its price history on Dec. 17, RLUSD has traded as low as $0.97 and as high as $1.07. At the time of publication, it trades within 10 basis points of its $1 peg.