RLUSD Surpasses $1.5B as Ripple Expands Institutional Services
Ripple is executing a significant global expansion centered on its stablecoin, RLUSD, which has grown to a market capitalization of over $1.55 billion. On March 17, the company launched its full suite of five financial products in Brazil, onboarding six institutional partners including Braza Bank and Banco Genial. This expansion builds on growing institutional adoption of Ripple's infrastructure, with its custody solution now operational in over 20 jurisdictions and utilized by firms like Germany's DZ Bank, which deployed the service in under 10 months.
The company is further cementing RLUSD's role as a regulated settlement asset through a pilot in the Monetary Authority of Singapore's (MAS) BLOOM sandbox. In partnership with supply chain firm Unloq, the project aims to automate trade finance payments, showcasing a concrete institutional use case for RLUSD on the XRP Ledger. This strategy positions RLUSD to compete directly with established stablecoins by focusing on regulated, enterprise-grade applications rather than direct XRP token adoption.
XRP Price Falls 40% on Whale Selling and RLUSD Preference
Despite Ripple's corporate achievements, the XRP token has disconnected from this growth, falling 40% since January 2026 to trade at $1.44. The divergence is driven by significant selling pressure, with an estimated $6 billion in XRP cashed out by large holders since its July 2025 peak. This selling is compounded by weak demand from exchange-traded funds, where weekly inflows collapsed from a high of $200 million to less than $2 million by early March 2026.
Analysis shows that approximately 60% of XRP holders are at an unrealized loss, creating a wall of sell orders at key levels like $1.58-$1.60 that stifle price increases. While institutions are adopting Ripple's technology, they overwhelmingly prefer the price stability of RLUSD for settlement, limiting direct demand for XRP. A native "auto-bridging" feature, which uses XRP as an intermediary for 92% of trades on the XRPL's decentralized exchange, does generate underlying token demand from pairs like BBRL/RLUSD in Brazil. However, its current volume is too small to absorb the persistent selling and overcome the broader market's risk-off sentiment.
