XRP News Today: Ripple's XRP and RLUSD Serve Distinct Roles in Financial Ecosystem

Versan Aljarrah, co-founder of Black Swan Capitalist, recently addressed a common question within the cryptocurrency community: “Why use XRP if RLUSD exists?”

RLUSD has been making waves since its launch in December 2024, and exploring the uses of both assets shows their complementary roles and different purposes within Ripple’s broader financial infrastructure.

XRP is the native digital asset of the XRP Ledger (XRPL), the foundational technology supporting Ripple’s global payment network, RippleNet. XRP functions primarily as a bridge currency, facilitating fast and cost-efficient cross-border transactions. RippleNet leverages XRP to provide liquidity on demand, enabling financial institutions to transfer value across borders without needing pre-funded accounts. This foundational role of XRP is emphasized by Aljarrah’s analogy that “XRP is the train, RippleNet lays the tracks,” highlighting XRP’s integral position in the payment infrastructure. The XRPL’s decentralized and high-performance nature allows it to handle large volumes of transactions with low latency, making it suitable for real-time settlement and liquidity management.

RLUSD was introduced to address use cases where price stability is paramount. Experts have explained that RLUSD plays roles that XRP cannot, like collateralizing loans or remitting salaries. RLUSD is designed to provide a stable digital asset pegged to the U.S. dollar, which is crucial for merchants, consumers, and businesses that require predictable value without exposure to cryptocurrency volatility. Unlike XRP, which experiences price fluctuations inherent to cryptocurrencies, RLUSD offers a reliable medium of exchange and store of value for everyday transactions. This makes RLUSD particularly useful in scenarios such as retail payments, payroll, and other applications where stability is necessary.

An expert recently clarified that RLUSD is not intended to replace XRP but rather to complement it. XRP remains essential for liquidity provisioning and cross-border settlement, while RLUSD is a stable transactional currency within the Ripple ecosystem. This distinction is critical because it highlights Ripple’s strategy to cater to diverse market needs. XRP’s volatility and liquidity make it suitable for international transfers and financial institutions, whereas RLUSD’s price stability supports everyday transactional use cases.

Aljarrah drew attention to former Treasury Secretary Rosie Rios’s statement, “The train has already left the station,” which captures Ripple’s momentum in developing a multi-faceted digital asset ecosystem. XRP and RLUSD are both integral components, each fulfilling specific roles that enhance the ecosystem’s functionality and adoption.