Moody's Rates Ripple's $2.6 Billion RLUSD Stablecoin A2 a Day After OCC Trust Bank Approval
Key Takeaways
- •Moody's assigned RLUSD an A2 long-term deposit rating and a P-1 short-term deposit rating, placing the stablecoin within the investment-grade band.
- •The grades rest on reserves held primarily in Treasury bills, short-term U.S. government assets, and cash mostly with BNY, maintained at a 103% coverage target with par redemption available within two business days.
- •Moody's noted that Standard Custody is not bankruptcy-remote and holders have no direct ownership interest in reserves, though the GENIUS Act taking effect in 2027 will exclude required reserves from an issuer's bankruptcy estate.
- •The rating followed by one day the OCC's final approval of Ripple National Trust Bank, which will manage RLUSD reserves while issuance remains with Standard Custody under New York regulators, keeping the token under both state and federal supervision.
- •Launched in December 2024, RLUSD has reached a market capitalization of about $2.6 billion, and Ripple is pursuing institutional adoption through efforts including Standard Chartered custody in Dubai and a Mastercard, WebBank, and Gemini settlement pilot.
Moody's Ratings has assigned an A2 long-term deposit rating and a P-1 short-term deposit rating to Ripple USD (RLUSD), the dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Standard Custody & Trust Company, a subsidiary of blockchain payments firm Ripple, the agency announced on Tuesday.
A2 is the sixth-highest long-term grade on Moody's scale and sits within the agency's investment-grade band, while P-1 is its top short-term rating. Moody's said the grades reflect the quality of RLUSD's reserves, which are held mainly in Treasury bills, other short-term U.S. government assets, and cash, most of it with custodian BNY. The reserves are maintained at a target of 103% coverage of tokens in circulation, and eligible institutional holders can redeem RLUSD at par within two business days.
The rating action also flagged gaps in holder protections. Moody's noted that Standard Custody is not a bankruptcy-remote entity and that RLUSD holders do not currently have a direct ownership interest in the reserves backing the token. The agency added, however, that the GENIUS Act—the U.S. stablecoin law due to take effect in 2027—will exclude required reserves from an issuer's bankruptcy estate. Moody's said the ratings were requested by the issuer.
The grading came one day after Ripple won final approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for Ripple National Trust Bank, a federally chartered entity that will manage RLUSD's reserves and act as their collateral trustee. RLUSD will continue to be issued by Standard Custody under the oversight of the New York Department of Financial Services, placing the stablecoin under both state and federal supervision. The split between the issuing entity and the federally chartered reserve manager will remain a feature of RLUSD's structure as Ripple develops its institutional offering.
RLUSD's Institutional Push
Launched in December 2024 on Ethereum and the XRP Ledger, RLUSD has since grown to a market capitalization of roughly $2.6 billion, according to CoinGecko—still a small share of a stablecoin market worth about $300 billion. Ripple has pitched the token at institutional users rather than retail traders.
Earlier this month, Standard Chartered began offering institutional custody of RLUSD through its Dubai branch and said it was working with Ripple and LMAX Group on a "collateral mirroring" arrangement that would let clients use the stablecoin as trading collateral without moving it off the bank's books.
In November 2025, Ripple teamed up with Mastercard, WebBank, and Gemini to explore using RLUSD on the XRP Ledger to settle fiat transactions on the Gemini Credit Card, pending regulatory approvals. RLUSD had just crossed a $1 billion market capitalization at the time, making it the 11th-largest stablecoin, according to DefiLlama.
