This launch fulfills a memorandum of understanding signed in August 2025 and extends a partnership that began in 2016, when Ripple and SBI first collaborated on cross‑border payments and blockchain infrastructure across Asia.
According to Jack McDonald, Ripple’s Senior Vice President of Stablecoins, RLUSD will act as a bridge for payments, tokenization and collateral management, linking Japanese companies with global dollar liquidity.
RLUSD represents Ripple’s commitment to the regulated segment of the stablecoin market and is distinct from XRP, the token for which the company is best known. Ripple has long marketed RLUSD as an enterprise token for settlements and tokenization—the issuance of real‑world assets on chain.
The launch in Japan further extends this endeavor across Asia at a time when stablecoins are attracting formal regulation in the United States, Europe, and the region, turning the dollar‑token market into a competition for regulatory approval as well as user adoption.
It remains to be seen whether RLUSD can match the market share of USDT and USDC. While approvals such as Japan’s provide the credentials needed to appeal to institutional users, RLUSD must still convert that legitimacy into the trading volume and liquidity that its larger competitors already enjoy.