• Ripple is close to launching its U.S.-dollar pegged stablecoin, Ripple USD (RLUSD), with CEO Brad Garlinghouse indicating a launch timeline of "weeks."
• RLUSD will be fully backed by U.S. dollar assets, tested with enterprise partners, and will operate on the XRP Ledger and Ethereum blockchain.

SEOUL — Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse, at the Korea Blockchain Week on Wednesday, said that the company's U.S.-dollar pegged stablecoin is close to issuance.

"We will certainly launch soon. Weeks, not months," Garlinghouse said at the event. "It's called Ripple USD. RLUSD has been minted in that framework."

He stated that plans for the token were made after USD Coin (USDC) , the second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization of $34 billion, lost its dollar peg in March 2023.

"We felt like there was an opportunity for a credible player already working with lots of financial institutions to lean into that market," he said.

Ripple first revealed its stablecoin plans in April, stating that the token would be "100% backed by U.S. dollar deposits, short-term U.S. government Treasuries and other cash equivalents."

It began testing the token in early August with enterprise partners. The stablecoin is scheduled to be deployed onto Ripple's institution-focused XRP Ledger and the Ethereum blockchain to start and will be based on Ethereum's ERC-20 token standard.

Plans for the stablecoin come amid further boosts to the XRP Ledger network in the form of Ethereum-compatible smart contracts, which will let users build out on-chain exchanges and issue tokens, among other financial services, as they do on Ethereum.