The U.S. dollar will remain dominant as the world’s reserve currency, and stablecoins will be the tool to ensure that happens, as was recently declared by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
The scale of stablecoin adoption, however, is likely far beyond current expectations. If stablecoin AUM expands into multiple trillions, the rest of the crypto market will have to adapt to a new reality.
Gamza KhanzadaevJohn Deaton, well known in crypto legal circles and an advocate for XRP holders in their class action lawsuit against the SEC, picked up on this and connected the dots to Ripple’s latest move. He pointed to Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse’s projection: the stablecoin market is on track for a tenfold expansion in five years.
Even that estimate, according to Deaton, might be too conservative. If regulatory clarity arrives, some of the world’s most powerful banks could step in with their own stablecoins, creating a landscape where multiple players compete in an industry worth trillions.
Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin
That is where RLUSD, Ripple’s stablecoin, enters the equation. With large institutions showing increasing interest in stablecoin adoption, Ripple’s decision to launch RLUSD appears less like a simple expansion and more like a necessary step to stay relevant in a space where influence will be determined by who controls the biggest, most trusted and most widely used digital dollars.
Tomiwabold OlajideThe numbers reinforce this perspective. The current stablecoin market is valued at $233 billion, but Garlinghouse’s estimate puts it at $2.8 trillion by 2030. RLUSD, having only been live for three months, is already a $169.71 million asset, with a daily trading volume of $22.14 million.
This is just the beginning, and as the stablecoin sector expands, Ripple’s role within it may turn out to be far bigger than it appears today.
Vladislav Sopov
Dan Burgin