Garlinghouse explains Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin pivot and US policy momentum

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the launch of its stablecoin, RLUSD, was not a sudden expansion beyond XRP, but a move to internalize stablecoin flow activity already tied to Ripple’s payments business. Speaking at FII Priority Miami 2026, Garlinghouse argued Ripple’s stablecoin involvement scaled well before RLUSD was issued. He claimed Ripple was “minting 20% of all USDC” about two years ago, and that Ripple already processed over $100B in payment flows. He framed RLUSD as a more institution-friendly option because Ripple holds large crypto reserves (about $60–$70B) and limited USD reserves (about $4B), positioning it to support compliance-focused, balance-sheet strength. Garlinghouse cited a market lesson from USDC’s temporary depeg during the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, noting Circle did not move because it lacked the needed balance-sheet backing. In his view, stablecoins are increasingly adopted to solve treasury, settlement, and cross-border transfer problems—not just for crypto branding. On competition, he expects more stablecoins before fewer, but doubts the need for “50” USD-stablecoins. He highlighted future differentiators as trust, licensing, and reserve transparency, pointing to Ripple’s compliance-first approach including New York DFS and OCC licensing. He also referenced Tether’s renewed push for audits as evidence that transparency demands are rising. Regulatory tone in the US is improving, he said, citing the passage of the GENIUS Act and predicting follow-on clarity (including the Clarity/asset classification direction) could arrive by end of May, with SEC–CFTC coordination as momentum. At press time, XRP traded around $1.36.