On October 28, 2026, Coinbase added RLUSD, a stablecoin issued by Ripple, to their suite of products including the retail application, Exchange and Prime platform. This means retail and institutional clients can trade, store and convert USD (or other supported dollar stablecoins) into RLUSD at a 1:1 rate. Depositing and withdrawing can occur on the XRP ledger, Ethereum and Base network with liquidity provided by Ripple. Coinbase Global Exchange clients will also gain access to RLUSD, including as collateral.
What makes this addition really exciting is that the stablecoin was only launched in December 2024 and has already achieved a market cap of between $2.4-2.6 billion. While RLUSD is used for cross-border payments, institutional settling and on-chain finance applications it remains a small stablecoin compared to USDC and USDT.
However, this is largely due to a stablecoin being a “winner takes all” market. As there is more liquidity in a stablecoin, more liquidity will come into that stablecoin. For institutions and active users it’s important to have stablecoins that are used on the platforms they already use. Coinbase are one of the main onramps and storage solutions for U.S. retail and institutional clients so the addition of RLUSD will give more distribution as you can easily convert between the two and have multi-chain support.
Timing-wise, it comes just two days after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency gave final approval to Ripple National Trust Bank. This federally regulated trust bank will manage the segregated reserve account for RLUSD, hold the collateral for holders and provide fiduciary custody solutions. The actual issuing of RLUSD is handled by Standard Custody & Trust Company which is regulated by the New York Department of Financial Services.
The fact that it is both state and federally regulated, plus has monthly attestation by an independent party, along with cash reserves, short term treasuries and cash equivalents (primarily with BNY) gives it a strong compliance angle which is important for institutional clients. This partnership with Coinbase was a “credibility milestone” said Jack McDonald, Senior Vice President of Stablecoins at Ripple. Brett Tejpaul, Co-CEO of Coinbase Institutional called it a “step further along the journey to everything exchange.” Giving clients the ability to choose RLUSD as their payment/ settlement solution on a secure and compliant infrastructure.
Coinbase have had a very close relationship with USDC as they have equity in Circle and have considered it their go-to dollar stablecoin. They have slowly expanded their selection of stablecoins, adding PYUSD from PayPal and adding RLUSD continues this trend. Having a wider range of quality dollar stablecoins can help increase trading volume, storage and settlement utility whilst not putting pressure on one issuer to succeed. From a clients point of view it gives them more flexibility to convert between various dollar stablecoins at par within a regulated environment and also allows them to utilise whichever network they want based on price, speed and application.
While this is a competitive advantage for RLUSD it is still a relatively small portion of the overall stablecoin market which is in the hundreds of billions. There are still network effects, increased order books and solid integration with other platforms meaning the largest stablecoins will be the best choice for many high volume/deFi applications.
However, this does remove one barrier to entry. Institutions already using Coinbase for execution, settlement, and storage can now add RLUSD to their portfolio without having to open new accounts. With multi-chain support, specifically Ethereum (DeFi), Base (increasingly busy) and XRP Ledger (low cost settlement) it gives more utility to clients. It will also be added as a collateral option on the Global Exchange in the future.
Overall we’re seeing clearer regulations around stablecoins in the U.S. with things like the GENIUS Act and the OCC granting national trust charters to digital asset firms. This means issuers can create stablecoins that are both regulated. Stablecoins are becoming payment and treasury solutions rather than just trading pairs. By partnering with a distribution partner like Coinbase it helps speed up this process.
