Ripple’s much-anticipated stablecoin, Ripple USD (RLUSD), has failed to gain traction since its mid-December launch.
Despite the well-capitalized company’s billions in funding and decade of experience in the blockchain industry, the XRP token hasn’t even captured a 0.04% market share of the stablecoin industry.
Today, RLUSD’s market capitalization remains below $75 million. For context, the market cap of tether (USDT) alone is $137 billion.
Ripple advertises its new stablecoin, designed to maintain a 1:1 peg with the US dollar, as an enterprise-grade solution for institutional financial use cases. However, its lackluster performance raises questions about demand for yet another USD proxy in an already crowded sector.
Discouragingly, only a tiny number of exchanges list RLUSD for trading — with a significant amount of its trading volume on exchanges in which Ripple previously invested like Bitstamp and Bitso.
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The billionaire-backed RLUSD stablecoin
Ripple, as the conductor of the world’s first multi-billion dollar Initial Coin Offering (ICO), employs over 900 people and has invested $600 million into dozens of crypto companies. Two of its founders, Jed McCaleb and Chris Larsen, are billionaires.
Ripple’s portfolio companies Bitstamp and Bitso are responsible for one-fifth of RLUSD’s trading volume today, according to CoinGecko data. The EOS-friendly Bullish exchange is responsible for the vast majority of RLUSD liquidity.
Sadly, failing to gain listings on a variety of major crypto exchanges might be contributing to the stablecoin’s struggle to attract interest and displace competitors. The thin liquidity on its trading pairs has also logged a history of slight fluctuations from its intended $1 price.
Since CoinGecko started tracking its price history on December 17, RLUSD has traded in a range as low as $0.97 and as high as $1.07. As of publication time, it is trading within 10 basis points of its $1 peg.
