Ripple will soon launch its RLUSD stablecoin, says Brad Garlinghouse

Ripple is close to launching its US dollar-pegged stablecoin, Ripple USD (RLUSD), Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said during a recent fireside chat at Korea Blockchain Week in Seoul.

The stablecoin is currently being tested on the XRP Ledger and ethereum, and will “certainly launch” within weeks, Garlinghouse revealed.

The company announced plans to launch a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar in April this year. It aims to complement XRP tokens by providing a reliable payment solution that can bridge traditional finance and decentralized finance (DeFi).

Fully backed by US dollars and short-term US government bonds, RLUSD is also expected to improve payments infrastructure and diversify use cases within the Ripple network.

Ripple's stablecoin initiative is set to compete with Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC, the two leading stablecoins in the digital asset market. So far, the market cap of USDT has surpassed $118 billion, followed by USDC at approximately $35 billion, CoinGecko reported. data sample.

Ripple, however, sees an opportunity for credible players to carve out a niche. The company's CTO David Schwartz previously stated that the stablecoin market could surpass $2 trillion by 2028.

No interest in US IPO due to legal challenges

Garlinghouse said Ripple has no interest in going public in the US due to the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) “fairly hostile” stance towards cryptocurrencies.

Coinbase's experience with the SEC has also discouraged the company from going public in the country.

“The SEC approved Coinbase to go public in the United States and now the SEC is suing Coinbase for the very things they approved,” Garlinghouse said.

However, Garlinghouse remains optimistic about the future of cryptocurrencies after the upcoming presidential election. He believes that cryptocurrencies will ultimately win, regardless of who wins the election.