Ripple to launch USD stablecoin that CTO David Schwartz expects to rival USDT and USDC
Ripple has announced plans to launch a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar that will initially be available on the XRP Ledger and Ethereum blockchains.
“The issuance of our stablecoin on XRP Ledger and Ethereum will serve as a critical entry point to unlock new opportunities for institutional and DeFi use cases across multiple ecosystems,” Ripple President Monica Long said in a statement Thursday. “Bringing a trusted stablecoin to XRPL will drive further adoption and development, contributing to a vibrant ecosystem.”
The company also said that the stablecoin, scheduled to launch later this year, will be backed by "dollar deposits, short-term U.S. Treasuries and other cash equivalents," according to its statement. "These reserve assets will be audited by an external accounting firm and Ripple will publish monthly certifications"
At the moment, the two dominant USD-pegged stablecoins are Tether's USDT and Circle Internet Financial's USDC. Ripple said in its statement that the stablecoin market, now worth more than $150 billion, is expected to grow to $2.8 trillion by 2028.
Ripple CTO David Schwartz told The Block that "in hindsight" he and his team would have liked to launch a stablecoin sooner. However, after learning more about the market and monitoring economic factors, he said, issuing one this year makes strategic sense.
"Rising interest rates make it a much more attractive market," he said. "There has also been some kind of restructuring and actually Tether is almost impossible for us due to regulatory issues. There is a lot of uncertainty about it"
He went on to say: “We have used USDC before [and] there is nothing wrong with it. "It's just that you don't want to have just one option."
