Ripple introduced two initiatives on Thursday aimed at expanding institutional use of RLUSD, its dollar-backed stablecoin, during a month in which the token's transfer volume fell by about 25%.

The company launched Ripple Mint, an automated platform that allows institutional customers to create, redeem, bridge and monitor RLUSD through either a web dashboard or direct integration. Ripple has also made a strategic investment in Notabene, a compliance network that is adding RLUSD to its business-payments platform.

Ripple Mint is intended to streamline the issuance and management of RLUSD for institutions. Previously, minting RLUSD — the process of issuing new tokens after a customer deposits dollars — generally required direct coordination with Ripple and a manual issuance process. With the new application programming interfaces, firms can automatically trigger minting and redemption from their own systems and track each transaction from dollar transfer to onchain settlement. RLUSD launched in December 2024, meaning these infrastructure upgrades come within the token's first year of operation as Ripple works to build out institutional-grade tooling around it.

Ripple has also been expanding RLUSD beyond the XRP Ledger and Ethereum. The token has been extended to additional networks, including the XRPL EVM sidechain, Base, Optimism, Ink and Unichain, increasing the number of blockchains on which it can circulate. The expansion across multiple chains aligns with a broader industry trend in which stablecoin issuers pursue multichain availability to capture payments and settlement activity across different DeFi and enterprise ecosystems.

Separately, Ripple announced late Thursday that it had made a strategic investment in Notabene. The compliance network is placing RLUSD inside its business-payments platform, putting the stablecoin in front of institutions that may be positioned to send and receive it. While Ripple Mint is designed to make RLUSD easier to create and manage, the Notabene integration is aimed at supporting movement through institutional payment rails.

The initiatives come as RLUSD shows a mixed usage profile. The token has a market value of about $1.5 billion, according to data from RWA.xyz, making it one of the larger regulated stablecoins, though still far smaller than Tether and Circle's USDC. For context, the total stablecoin market exceeds $250 billion, with Tether's USDT alone accounting for more than $150 billion and USDC roughly $60 billion, underscoring the gap RLUSD would need to close to become a top-tier stablecoin.

RLUSD's supply is split between the XRP Ledger and Ethereum. The XRP Ledger holds roughly $877 million, while Ethereum accounts for about $643 million.

Data reviewed by CoinDesk showed that RLUSD's holder count and active addresses rose over the past month, increasing 6% and 70%, respectively. Over the same 30-day period, however, the token's market capitalization declined by nearly 5%, while monthly transfer volume dropped about 25%, from approximately $14.6 billion to $11 billion. CoinDesk's headline figure cited monthly transfer volume falling to $10.95 billion.

The data indicates that more wallets are holding RLUSD even as less value is being transferred through the token. In that context, Ripple's latest efforts focus not only on issuance but also on encouraging institutional transaction activity.

RLUSD is issued by Standard Custody & Trust, which holds a limited-purpose trust charter from New York's financial regulator. Ripple has used that compliance credential in its efforts to court banks and other institutions in a stablecoin market where regulatory clarity has become a major competitive issue. U.S. lawmakers have been advancing stablecoin legislation, including the GENIUS Act, which would establish a federal framework for payment stablecoins — a development that could reshape the competitive landscape for issuers racing to demonstrate compliance and institutional readiness.

For Ripple, expanding RLUSD's supply is one challenge. Turning the stablecoin into infrastructure that institutions use for real transaction volume is a separate hurdle, and Thursday's Ripple Mint launch and Notabene investment are directed at that second goal.