Key Highlights
- RLUSD will expand to Optimism, Base, Ink, and Unichain via Wormhole integration.
- The rollout boosts liquidity and pairs RLUSD with wrapped XRP.
- The move follows the recent Ripple’s U.S. trust bank approval by the OCC.
Ripple is accelerating its push into regulated, multichain finance by expanding its U.S. dollar stablecoin, RLUSD, to major Layer 2 networks. Today, the company confirmed that RLUSD will move onto Optimism, Base, Ink, and Unichain, using Wormhole’s Native Token Transfers (NTT) standard to enable secure, native cross-chain movement.
The move comes as Ripple strengthens its position with regulators and institutions, aiming to place the RLUSD stablecoin wherever enterprise demand and on-chain liquidity are forming. Testing will begin ahead of a broader rollout next year, pending final approvals.
The timing is not accidental. Days earlier, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency approved national trust bank charters for Ripple and several other crypto-native firms. The decision allows Ripple to operate a federally regulated trust bank, placing it directly inside the U.S. banking perimeter.
The approval gives Ripple a rare edge: a trust-regulated stablecoin with a path to federal oversight, signaling it now operates inside, not outside, the system.
RLUSD moves to Layer 2s
With regulatory footing improving, Ripple is now scaling distribution. RLUSD is set to become the first U.S.-based, trust-regulated stablecoin to launch across these Layer 2 ecosystems. Wormhole’s NTT standard allows RLUSD to remain natively issued while moving across chains without wrapped or synthetic risk.
The expansion also increases XRP’s utility. Ripple plans to pair RLUSD with wrapped XRP (wXRP) across these networks, creating deeper liquidity pools for payments, DeFi, and on-chain settlement. The goal is to make RLUSD and XRP usable wherever activity is moving.
“Stablecoins are the gateway to DeFi and institutional adoption, and RLUSD is designed from the ground up to be the trusted, liquid medium necessary for users to seamlessly enter, interact with, and exit the entire digital asset economy,” said Jack McDonald, Ripple’s SVP of Stablecoin. “By launching RLUSD—the first US Trust Regulated stablecoin on these L2 networks—we are not just expanding utility; we are setting the definitive standard where compliance and on-chain efficiency converge.”
At the time of publishing, RLUSD stablecoin’s market cap stands at $1.02 billion, while its 24-hour trading volume jumped nearly 94% to $37.04 million. This signals rising on-chain activity as the stablecoin expands to new networks.
Why this matters now
Layer 2 networks like Base and Optimism are becoming hubs for real usage, not just experimentation. Ripple is placing RLUSD where users are already active, without giving up compliance.
Ripple’s strategy blends regulation with scale, while very few stablecoins can claim both. The firm believes that if RLUSD gains traction across Layer 2s, it could become a preferred onchain dollar for enterprises that need compliance without friction.
Also read: Ripple Partners with AMINA Bank for Faster Crypto Payments in Europe
