Coinbase has listed Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin for retail and institutional clients. The listing challenges Kraken's position in regulated RLUSD dollar pairs in the U.S. It arrives alongside a Moody's rating and an OCC approval for Ripple.
Coinbase has listed Ripple USD (RLUSD) for retail and institutional clients in its Prime and Exchange terminals and the standard app. Conversion to dollars runs at a 1:1 ratio across three networks at once: XRP Ledger, Ethereum and Base.
The integration indicates a shift to a direct commercial partnership between the companies. On Base, the issuer itself will support the asset's liquidity.
Kraken's position faces a challenge
RLUSD is a stablecoin with a capitalization of $2.4 billion. Ripple originally created it for the corporate sector, not to compete with retail-focused tokens like USDT.
Even so, the Coinbase listing poses a direct challenge to Kraken. Until now, that exchange held the dominant role in regulated RLUSD dollar pairs in the U.S. Daily trading volume in the RLUSD/USD and RLUSD/USDC pairs on Kraken is just over $225,000, according to RLUSD market data. Coinbase's infrastructure is meant to scale those figures through an influx of American institutional clients.
Ripple's wider U.S. push
Jack McDonald of Ripple noted that institutions want compliant, high-quality stablecoins but lacked access through platforms they already trust and use. Brett Tejpaul of Coinbase Institutional called the integration a step toward a unified trading environment built to provide security and compliance.
The listing coincided with the OCC's approval of Ripple National Trust Bank. Moody's also assigned RLUSD ratings of A2 and P-1, confirming the quality of the reserves held at BNY.
In 2020, Coinbase delisted the XRP token because of the SEC lawsuit against Ripple, and restored trading only three years later.
The scaling of RLUSD in the U.S. market also includes integration into Robinhood, with 28.6 million clients, by the end of the year, and the B2B platform C2FO will use it for instant settlements.
Source: U.Today
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