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Ripple Made RLUSD Because XRP Isn’t Needed

Speaking in a session on banking access for digital-asset firms, Belshe opened with an appeal for direct Federal Reserve accounts before pivoting to Ripple’s history. “As a stablecoin business, you don’t need it, but do you want a master account? … We’d love a Fed master account, then we get to skip the banks.”

From there he walked the audience back to 2014: “So if you go back in time in digital assets about ten years, there’s this company Ripple… They had originally decided they were going to try to tackle cross-border payments by use of their XRP token.”

Belshe then dissected the two-step conversion model—dollars into XRP, then into pesos—arguing that the extra hop doomed the scheme. “It turns out that’s two conversions, right? And USD stablecoins are just better. So in fact, Ripple just launched a stablecoin, a US-dollar-backed stablecoin.”

Stablecoins, he contended, will become the “rails across the world,” sweeping aside tokens whose only advantage is theoretical bridge liquidity. He painted an everyday retail scenario—phones tapped at farmers’ markets, interest airdropped monthly—and concluded: “It just works. It’s super simple. Peer-to-peer plus peer-to-intermediary.”

While Belshe spoke, RLUSD is quietly growing. Ripple introduced the token last December after securing New York DFS approval; by 2 April it had been integrated into Ripple Payments and had already reached a market capitalization of $244 million. Continued issuance on Ethereum pushed supply higher: on 21 June Ripple minted another 14 million RLUSD, lifting circulation toward $450 million. CoinMarketCap’s real-time dashboard now shows roughly $429 million outstanding, with daily volumes above $84 million.

Ripple rejects the premise that adopting a dollar token concedes defeat for bridge token. In a series of posts and interviews earlier this year, Ripple CTO David Schwartz argued that RLUSD supplies price-stable working capital while the token remains the ledger’s default auto-bridging asset, handling path-finding and liquidity between non-dollar pairs. Community analysts amplified the point on X, contending that RLUSD “broadens the ecosystem” rather than replaces its native coin.

Reactions to Belshe’s talk split sharply. Popular community member Crypto Eri (@sentosumosaba) who shared the video, commented via X: “This is why XRP needs: 1. SPOT ETFs 2. XRPFi 3. XRP Treasury Strategies 4. More Innovators & Builders. USD Stablecoins = LESS Conversations and therefore eating up the payments world.”

One critic mocked the clip as “comedy gold,” saying it confirmed what skeptics have argued all along.” run the juels (@nullpackets) commented: “Thanks for giving your 275K followers a chuckle on a Sunday morning like this. We all need to laugh more. Oh man, this is xrp’er comedy gold. With no sense of self-awareness – unironically posting a video that says what we’ve been saying all along – xrp bridge currency cumbersome and not needed. Tokenization and stablecoins obsolete bridge currencies. Study LINK.”

At press time, XRP traded at $2.02.

XRP finds support in the red zone, 1-day chart | Source: XRPUSDT on TradingView.com

Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

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Core Foundation, the creator of a yield-bearing bitcoin token, has partnered with institutional lending protocol Maple Finance and custody firms BitGo, Copper and Hex Trust to push deep into the BTC staking sector.

Core’s IstBTC token lets institutional participants earn yield on bitcoin holdings while staying safely inside trusted custodial partners without the need to take on the risks or operational burdens of dealing with smart contracts. A liquid staking token, to be issued in the coming months by Maple, will allow staked BTC to be used by trading firms and asset managers as collateral for borrowing in DeFi or with trading counterparties.

The ability to earn yield on bitcoin and potentially unleash a new wave of liquidity into the DeFi ecosystem has become a hot topic, with protocols like Babylon having entered the market. A massive, untapped group of BTC holders will be able to get yield on their BTC thanks to Core’s dual-staking mechanism, said Maple CEO Sid Powell.

“Bitcoin’s security budget will face problems in a few years as miners receive less block rewards revenue,” Powell said in an interview. “Staking solutions like CORE can help strengthen Bitcoin network security by giving alternative revenue sources to miners. Holders of lstBTC will benefit from this by earning yield on their BTC while in custody, which represents an immense total addressable market.”

Maple launched an existing BTC staking product on CORE this month. This product involves locking up BTC for 90 days and has a yield target of 5%-plus APY. The liquid staking token BTC (lstBTC) will be instantly redeemable, offering better liquidity. Therefore, Maple expects a slightly lower APR range.

Powell said Core is placing itself in an excellent competitive position, as things are in place to be first to market with a yield-bearing BTC liquid staking token.

“There are few BTC yield options out there. If you look across the stack, most of them are just points and they’re not liquid yet or delivering yield in BTC.
Read more: Staking Will Define Bitcoin’s Role in the Global Digital Economy in 2025