Ripple is preparing to launch its own US dollar-backed stablecoin this year, with CEO Brad Garlinghouse calling the move “a natural step” for the company as it looks to “continue bridging the gap between traditional finance and crypto”.
The San Francisco-headquartered crypto and blockchain solutions firm says its decision to enter the $150 billion stablecoin market is in response to the “clear demand for stablecoins that deliver trust, stability, and utility”, with forecasts suggesting the market could “exceed $2.8 trillion by 2028”.
It says that its stablecoin offering will be pegged 1:1 with “US dollar deposits, short-term US government treasuries, and other cash equivalents”.
These reserves will be subject to the audit of a third-party accounting firm, with attestations of assets to be published monthly.
Forecast to go live “later this year” once the necessary regulatory approvals have been secured, the offering will make its debut initially on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) and Ethereum blockchains with ERC20 token standards.
This will be followed by launches on additional, currently unspecified blockchains and decentralised finance (DeFi) protocols and apps “over time”.
Monica Long, president of Ripple, says the issuance of the digital currency on the XRPL and Ethereum blockchains will “unlock new opportunities for institutional and DeFi use cases across multiple ecosystems”.
Leveraging a decade of experience in payment and custody infrastructure, Ripple previously joined forces with The Republic of Palau, an island nation in the Pacific, in July last year to launch a limited stablecoin pilot among 200 local merchants and government employees.
