[DigitalToday reporter Jinju Hong (홍진주)] As Standard Chartered rolls out custody services for Ripple’s stablecoin RLUSD, expectations are growing that Ripple’s institutional business is expanding on a track separate from XRP.

U.Today, a blockchain media outlet, reported on Oct. 13 that the move showed a structure in which Ripple can expand its business on Wall Street and in banking without an XRP price increase.

The key point is that Ripple is expanding its institutional payments network around RLUSD. The outlet said this put “the native token XRP at risk of becoming an optional element.” Analysts at on-chain analytics firm Santiment also said the move “suggests Ripple has the ability to win in the major leagues without XRP growth.”

Market trends are also aligning with the shift. XRP prices are stagnant, while RLUSD issuance is rising organically. RLUSD’s market value has grown to as much as $2.41 billion, ranking 39th among global stablecoins and closely trailing PayPal USD at $2.9 billion.

It was also highlighted that institutional money is focused on payment efficiency and regulatory suitability rather than price volatility. Banks see RLUSD as a “pure payment tool,” and its multichain structure is dispersing transactions beyond the XRP Ledger. As a result, XRP is losing its role as the ecosystem’s exclusive fuel, and Ripple’s focus is shifting toward managing fiat reserve assets and collecting infrastructure fees, the report said.

The integration with Standard Chartered has also lowered practical barriers for institutional investors. Conservative funds can now hold digital dollars within a regulated European bank instead of through crypto exchanges. Ripple, Standard Chartered and LMAX Group are also completing tests of a cross-platform collateral system. Under the structure, a broker can recognize RLUSD as collateral for opened trading positions even if a fund keeps RLUSD in a bank account.

The expansion of the institutional ecosystem has continued through equity investments as well. Standard Chartered’s venture arm SC Ventures, Ripple and Circle joined an OKX investment round that valued the company at $25 billion. U.Today assessed this as major players creating an “isolated payments ecosystem focused only on dollar stablecoins.”

Some in the XRP community have expressed expectations that RLUSD transactions could increase XRP Ledger fee burns and lead to XRP scarcity, but the outlet said such claims are difficult to support mathematically. That is because network fees are very small. Banks are also adopting Ripple products only after closed compliance tests that last for months, leading to analysis that there is limited room for highly volatile XRP to take a central role in the actual adoption process.

Ultimately, the case showed that while Ripple is succeeding in monetising traditional finance, that success is not structured to translate directly into demand for XRP. Against that backdrop, the key point to watch is whether further growth in RLUSD issuance and commercialisation of the institutional collateral system will further weaken the link between Ripple’s business growth and XRP’s market value.