Only about a third of Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin circulates on the XRP Ledger, according to on-chain data — a reminder for Ripple XRP holders that the company's biggest business wins do not all land on its own blockchain.

The split is lopsided. The XRP Ledger holds $862.8 million of RLUSD, according to its issuing account on XRPScan, against $1.72 billion on Ethereum, and Ripple's latest attestation — a regular report verifying that reserves back the tokens in circulation — put total circulation at $2.63 billion on October 29.

Ripple's most recent week should help RLUSD grow. The company won final OCC approval to establish Ripple National Trust Bank on October 26 and signed a partnership with Robinhood a day later. Only the Robinhood deal names the XRP Ledger, and only for settling institutional trades through Bitstamp.

The ledger's own upgrades, meanwhile, are stuck. Its native lending protocol has 19 of the 28 validator votes it needs, and token vaults have 21.

So what did Ripple sign, and why isn't more of it landing on the XRP Ledger?

What Did Ripple Sign Last Week?

Two deals: one that puts a bank behind RLUSD and another that puts a broker in front of it.

The charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the federal regulator that charters and examines national banks, lets Ripple National Trust Bank hold the segregated reserves backing RLUSD, act as their collateral trustee for RLUSD holders, and offer digital asset custody once it opens. It cannot take deposits or make loans, and RLUSD will still be issued by Standard Custody & Trust Company, Ripple's New York-regulated trust company.

“For years, we've said crypto and banks work better together,” Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said. Ripple has not announced an opening date for the bank.

The Robinhood partnership is broader than a listing:

• RLUSD: already live on Robinhood Chain and Bitstamp by Robinhood, with the Robinhood app due later this year
• XRP Ledger: Robinhood will settle institutional trades in RLUSD on the ledger
• Ripple Treasury: Robinhood will run its own cash, payments and liquidity on Ripple's treasury software
• Ripple Prime: already lends to Bitstamp across about 20 digital assets and will support perpetual futures there later this year

“Utility is what moves stablecoins forward,” said Johann Kerbrat, who runs Robinhood Crypto. Robinhood, the retail investing app, had 28.6 million funded customers in August.

Where Does Ripple's RLUSD Actually Live?

Mostly on Ethereum. RLUSD has been multichain from the start: Ripple launched it on both the XRP Ledger and Ethereum in December 2024. On Wednesday morning, RLUSD's issuing account on the XRP Ledger showed 862.8 million tokens outstanding, while the RLUSD contract on Ethereum showed 1.72 billion. That gives the XRP Ledger roughly 33% of the $2.58 billion circulating across the two chains.

The split matters for XRP. Every RLUSD payment on the XRP Ledger pays a small fee in XRP, which is destroyed, and every new account must hold at least 1 XRP in reserve. RLUSD on Ethereum does neither.

Why Isn't More RLUSD on the XRP Ledger?

Partly because the tools stablecoin users rely on elsewhere are not live on the ledger yet. An upgrade, or amendment, needs 28 of the ledger's 35 trusted validators — 80% — to vote yes for two weeks before it switches on, and most of the amendments aimed at institutions are well short of that threshold.

Where the key upgrades stand, according to XRPScan's amendment tracker:

• fixCleanup3_4_0: 33 votes, due to switch on at about 14:46 UTC today. It closes a loophole that let an account with permission to burn tokens mint new ones in some cases.
• Single-asset vaults: 21 votes, 7 short. Vaults pool one asset, such as RLUSD, for others to borrow.
• Lending protocol: 19 votes, 9 short, for both versions. It would let those vaults make loans directly on the ledger.
• Confidential transfers: 20 votes, 8 short.

Until lending and vaults go live, institutions that want to lend out RLUSD have more options on Ethereum, where stablecoin lending protocols have operated for years.

What Does It Mean for Ripple and XRP Holders?

Ripple's business is growing faster than the XRP Ledger's share of it. Two other numbers from this week show how XRP itself is being handled:

• Ripple's escrow: two escrow contracts released 1 billion XRP on November 1, and Ripple locked 700 million straight back up the same day, leaving 300 million in its hands. Ripple has used on-ledger escrow since 2017, when it locked 55 billion XRP to manage supply releases.
• US spot XRP ETFs: the five funds saw no net flow on Tuesday, November 3, and took in $17.52 million over 30 days, according to SoSoValue. They hold $1.46 billion, about 1.78% of XRP's market value.

The price has not reacted to any of it. XRP trades at $1.28, flat over 24 hours, between support at $1.27 and resistance at $1.30, and below its 50-day and 200-day EMAs at $1.3353 and $1.3631, according to the XRPUSDT daily chart on TradingView.

Three things to watch next:

• The Robinhood app: RLUSD is due there later this year, and Ripple has not said which chain app users will hold it on.
• Ripple National Trust Bank: no opening date yet.
• The lending vote: if 9 more validators back the lending protocol, it still needs two weeks at 80% approval before it goes live.

For now, the Ripple XRP story is a split one: Ripple keeps adding banks and brokers for RLUSD, while most of the stablecoin remains on Ethereum.

Source: 99Bitcoins