Key Takeaways
- Average daily activity has more than tripled since the year’s start.
- August ended with $2.326 billion in tokens and $2.446 billion in reserves.
- RLUSD/USDS processed more than $600 million during its first week.
RLUSD Tops $2.4 Billion as Daily Activity More Than Triples
Ripple has published updated backing figures for Ripple USD (RLUSD), a token designed to track the U.S. dollar, as its issuer expands distribution. Jack McDonald, senior vice president of stablecoins at blockchain infrastructure company Ripple, shared an RLUSD growth and reserve update on X Sept. 30. He cited an approximately $2.4 billion market capitalization and a monthly increase above 50%.
McDonald wrote: “The $RLUSD monthly independent attestation for August is now live!” He also emphasized usage:
“RLUSD continues to climb, reaching ~$2.4B in market cap, up more than 50% in a month. What’s more exciting… average daily activity has more than tripled since the start of the year.”
The token had already reached a $2.44 billion supply milestone earlier in September, with balances distributed across the Ethereum blockchain and the XRP Ledger (XRPL), a public network for transferring assets. That snapshot showed approximately $1.37 billion on Ethereum and $1.05 billion on XRPL, placing the larger share of circulation outside the latter network.
August Attestation Details RLUSD’s Reserve Backing
The August examination records the assets held against outstanding dollar-linked units at two specific points during the month. Ripple’s independent reserve attestation covers Aug. 17 and Aug. 31. On the latter date, outstanding RLUSD totaled 2,325,969,308 tokens, while the reserve’s market value reached $2,446,312,864, leaving approximately $120.3 million above the outstanding token amount.
The independent accountant concluded that management’s assertion was fairly stated, in all material respects, under the specified criteria. The examination, dated Sept. 29, addressed disclosures at those two August snapshots. Separately, Ripple’s transparency figures for Sept. 24 list $2.409 billion in circulating RLUSD against $2.5315 billion in backing assets, approximately $122.5 million above circulation.
The issuer operates under reserve requirements and ongoing supervision through a state trust charter, a license governing its custody and related financial activities. RLUSD is issued by Ripple subsidiary Standard Custody & Trust Company, a limited-purpose trust company supervised by the New York State Department of Financial Services. Its framework requires holder backing to remain separate from the business’s own property.
Businesses can use digital dollars that target a steady value while moving across public networks and exchange platforms. Stablecoin backing and redemption mechanisms help support that target, with reserve quality and the ability to exchange tokens for dollars influencing reliability. For businesses, maintaining that value supports dollar-denominated invoicing and settlement without requiring the recipient to accept a fluctuating cryptocurrency.
Exchange Liquidity and AI Payments Expand RLUSD Uses
Exchange access is expanding through shared liquidity, the funds available to support swaps between different dollar-denominated assets. McDonald highlighted lending and liquidity platform Spark’s Stablecoin FX Layer on Uniswap v4, a decentralized exchange protocol. RLUSD/USDS processed more than $600 million in its first week, pairing Ripple’s token with Sky’s USDS stablecoin. The layer began in June with approximately $150 million across other dollar-linked markets.
Software developers also gained another route for automated transactions through Ripple’s developer division, RippleX, and its updated XRP Ledger AI Starter Kit. According to McDonald’s update, it supports the Machine Payments Protocol, co-authored by payments company Stripe and payments-focused blockchain Tempo. The integration enables developers to arrange one-time payments by AI agents using XRP, the ledger’s native cryptocurrency, or issuer-created tokens such as RLUSD.
McDonald’s rundown also cited a Ripple-commissioned Asia-Pacific analysis on institutions adopting stablecoins for payments and treasury operations. It identifies potential RLUSD applications in cross-border settlement, treasury funding, and transactions involving blockchain-based financial assets. The research describes these as routes for institutional adoption, linking their development to compliance, custody, transparency, and integration with existing financial systems.
