Emily Walker
XRP has experienced a remarkable increase recently, reaching a peak price of $2.81, marking its highest level since January 2018. This surge has allowed XRP to surpass several cryptocurrencies, including BNB, Solana, and Tether USDT in market cap. The growing momentum of XRP’s price may be further propelled by new excitement surrounding Ripple’s potential utilization of escrow reserves for RLUSD minting, generating buzz in the crypto community.
Ripple’s RLUSD Minting Plan and Escrow Details
There are speculations that Ripple, the organization behind XRP, might leverage its escrowed XRP as the foundational reserve for RLUSD minting. As the primary holder of XRP, Ripple has about 37.24 billion tokens locked away, releasing 1 billion tokens each month.
In addition, RLUSD is Ripple’s anticipated dollar-backed stablecoin, with an official launch expected upon receiving regulatory green light from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) on December 4.
A crypto analyst active on the social media platform X has noted that this stablecoin could enable Ripple to sell RLUSD to its On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) partners, significantly enhancing working capital. This strategy could lead to two major developments for Ripple and the XRP Ledger (XRPL) ecosystem: an uptick in liquidity and a managed decrease in the overall XRP supply while giving practical usage to the locked XRP tokens held by Ripple.
Potential Impacts of RLUSD on XRP Price and XRPL
By introducing RLUSD, Ripple would be stepping into a competitive stablecoin market, already occupied by prominent players like USDT and USDC. However, Ripple’s established presence in the crypto sphere may give it a competitive edge in this segment.
Should RLUSD gain widespread acceptance, it would create an indirect surge in demand for XRP, thereby enhancing its utility and potentially leading to a price increase. The minting process of RLUSD could also require locking up XRP tokens for escrow purposes, decreasing the circulating supply, which may further facilitate price appreciation.
As of now, XRP is trading at $2.74, showing an increase of approximately 12% in the last 24 hours and 90% over the past week. This rally is coinciding with significant accumulation by investors, with those holding between 1 million and 10 million XRP having gathered over 679.1 million tokens in three weeks, according to data from on-chain analytics firm Santiment.
The total value of this accumulating XRP is estimated at around $1.66 billion. If this trend continues, it could steer the price of XRP upward, with the next objective being to surpass $3 and potentially reach new heights above $3.40.