NY regulator approves Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin — Brad Garlinghouse

Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse has reported that the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) approved the firm’s RLUSD stablecoin after months of consideration.

In a Dec. 10 X post, Garlinghouse said Ripple would soon announce exchange and partner listings for RLUSD after the NYDFS approval. The company launched plans for the stablecoin in April as a competitor to Tether’s USDt

Ripple executives speculated the stablecoin could reach a market capitalization of $2 trillion by 2028. The company began testing RLUSD on the XRP ledger and Ethereum mainnets in August and announced partnerships with exchanges, including Uphold, Bitstamp, Bitso, MoonPay, Independent Reserve, CoinMENA and Bullish, in October.

Related: Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin: Here’s what you need to know before launch

Garlinghouse said in September that Ripple planned to have RLUSD focus on institutional players. As of Dec. 10, the combined market capitalization of USDT and USDC was roughly $180 billion.

How will Ripple handle both XRP and RLUSD?

Like all USD stablecoins, RLUSD will be pegged at 1:1 with the US dollar. Ripple said in April it planned to back the tokens with USD deposits, short-term US Treasury bonds, and “other cash equivalents.”

In June, Ripple president Monica Long said that RLUSD would be “complementary and additive” to XRP. Cointelegraph contacted the NYDFS for confirmation of the approval but did not receive a response at the time of publication.

Garlinghouse appeared in a 60 Minutes segment that aired on Dec. 8 to discuss the cryptocurrency industry’s role in influencing the 2024 United States election. Ripple is also engaged in an ongoing legal battle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission over XRP

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