Ripple's stablecoin RLUSD has surpassed a market capitalisation of $2 billion, while the amount issued on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) has also exceeded $1 billion.

On Aug. 1 local time, blockchain outlet The Crypto Basic reported that RLUSD reached that scale in less than 2 years since its launch.

Jack McDonald (잭 맥도널드), Ripple's senior vice president in charge of stablecoins, shared the news on X, formerly Twitter. He said RLUSD issued on the XRP Ledger alone has surpassed $1 billion. He added that while market capitalisation is not everything, the milestone is worth celebrating.

Ripple is rapidly expanding RLUSD use cases. It is focusing on growing it into a means of paying transaction funds in tokenised finance markets, as well as for payments and settlement. To do so, it is moving to expand digital financial infrastructure, including investing in ZILO and Licuido. Ripple plans to use RLUSD as a dollar-based settlement asset for tokenised asset trading in the future.

If that structure takes hold, the range of uses by banks and financial institutions could also broaden. As assets such as securities and funds are increasingly represented on blockchains, demand for dollar-based settlement methods could grow. RLUSD takes on dollar settlement, while XRP supports other activities within the network.

Demand within exchanges has also been confirmed. McDonald said deposits of RLUSD in Bybit's 'Hold and Earn' programme exceeded $50 million in 11 days. Bybit then launched a second-stage programme with Ripple that increased rewards for XRP and RLUSD. As user demand grows to earn returns by holding RLUSD, its use cases in the market are also expanding.

Ripple is also expanding RLUSD into corporate lending. It is building an XRP Ledger-based lending service in partnership with Clearpool and Cicada Credit, and RLUSD is expected to be used for loans to fintech companies, payments firms and other businesses. This gives RLUSD a structure for use in other financial services beyond payments or crypto trading.

A real-world use case has also emerged. Ripple is working with MC Social Venture, BlockBima and Fortune Credit on an RLUSD-based project in Kenya. The project focuses on expanding the ecosystem to help small businesses gain easier access to insurance and loans. Ripple said the initiative cut settlement time by 97 percent and reduced costs by about 3,000 times.

RLUSD's growth is also directly linking to the XRP Ledger. With issuance on the XRP Ledger surpassing $1 billion, the possibility has been raised that network activity and liquidity could increase. Ripple is broadening RLUSD from an exchange-focused stablecoin into payments, lending, tokenised assets and financial services in emerging markets, expanding its user base.

The ethereum:0x8292bb45bf1ee4d140127049757c2e0ff06317ed monthly independent attestation for July is now live! Some late-summer highlights… 1/ RLUSD crossed $2B this month, with over $1B issued on the XRP Ledger alone. Not even two years in, we’re very excited about what’s ahead.…