RLUSD launched on December 17, 2024, issued by Standard Custody & Trust Company LLC — a Ripple Labs subsidiary operating under a limited-purpose trust charter from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). An important distinction: RLUSD (the stablecoin) and XRP (the native, price-fluctuating asset of the XRP Ledger, covered in an earlier chapter) are two entirely separate assets — one is a dollar-backed, IOU-style claim, the other a standalone network token used for transaction fees and minimum reserves.
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Every RLUSD is backed 1:1 by US dollar deposits, short-term US Treasuries, and cash equivalents, held in segregated accounts.
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Natively available on both the XRP Ledger and Ethereum.
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The advisory board includes high-profile former central bankers, including Raghuram Rajan, former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.
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Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the company deliberately chose the NYDFS charter as “the premier regulatory standard” worldwide.
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A launch-day quirk: Ripple's CTO had warned in advance of volatility from early demand — in the first hours, some traders paid as much as $1,200 for a single token amid a temporary liquidity imbalance, before the market stabilized.