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

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

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

RLUSD Finds Opportunity in European USDT 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 increase in trading volume aligns with RLUSD’s design as a regulatory-compliant asset, positioning it advantageously under the newly implemented Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulations. European Union.

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

The latest development comes after Tether (USDT) saw its largest weekly market cap drop in the first week of January, to a level not seen since the FTX collapse in November 2022.

This drop follows the MiCA regulation, which led several EU exchanges to delist USDT due to compliance concerns. Although EU traders can hold USDT in non-custodial wallets, trading on MiCA-compliant exchanges is restricted. Despite market speculation, experts say the delisting will not harm USDT’s dominance.

Strategic Launch of RLUSD

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

It was quickly 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 previously warned of FOMO surrounding the launch of RLUSD. Addressing concerns on social media, Schwartz highlighted potential pricing anomalies, citing an instance where RLUSD was priced at $1,200 on the Xaman platform due to speculative behavior and limited supply during deployment initial. The executive then reassured the community that such discrepancies would quickly stabilize through arbitrage, reaffirming the $1 peg of RLUSD.