MiCA Compliance Powers Ripple’s RLUSD to Over 33,000 Transactions in 6 Months

Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin is rapidly gaining traction in the European crypto landscape.

The MiCA-compliant token has greatly benefited from the strategic launch at a time when the bloc is undergoing a significant regulatory shift.

RLUSD Finds Opportunity in USDT’s European Decline

According to CryptoQuant’s analysis, RLUSD has already processed 33,953 transactions on the XRP Ledger and 1,690 on Ethereum since testing began in June 2024.

This sharp rise in transaction volume aligns with RLUSD’s design as a regulatory-compliant asset, positioning it advantageously under the European Union’s newly implemented Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulations.

With the delisting of Tether stablecoins in Europe due to non-compliance, CryptoQuant analyst believes that RLUSD is poised to fill the void as a MiCA-compliant stablecoin, potentially driving further growth in adoption and transaction activity.

The latest development comes after Tether (USDT) saw its sharpest weekly market cap decline in the first week of January, to a level unseen since the FTX collapse in November 2022.

The decline follows MiCA regulations, which led several EU exchanges to delist USDT due to compliance issues. While EU traders can hold USDT in non-custodial wallets, trading on MiCA-compliant exchanges is restricted. Despite market speculation, experts argue the delisting won’t harm USDT’s dominance.

RLUSD’s Strategic Launch

Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin launched in mid-December after receiving regulatory clearance from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), following a period of extensive testing and preparation. Tied to the US dollar at a 1:1 ratio, RLUSD is a key component of the blockchain company’s strategy for boosting its cross-border payments.

It has quickly been adopted by various exchanges, including Uphold, Bitstamp, Bitso, Moonpay, and CoinMENA. Recently, Bullish, a cryptocurrency exchange backed by Peter Thiel, also integrated RLUSD, introducing trading pairs such as RLUSD/USDC, BTC/RLUSD, XRP/RLUSD, ETH/RLUSD, USD/RLUSD, EUR/RLUSD, and SOL/RLUSD.

Meanwhile, Ripple CTO David Schwartz had previously warned against FOMO surrounding the launch of RLUSD. Addressing concerns on social media, Schwartz highlighted potential price anomalies, citing a case where RLUSD was priced at $1,200 on the Xaman platform due to speculative behavior and limited supply during the initial rollout. The exec then reassured the community that such deviations would stabilize quickly through arbitrage, reaffirming RLUSD’s $1 peg.