XRP has experienced a significant surge in the past few weeks, with the price reaching $2.81, its highest value since January 2018. This surge has propelled XRP to overtake BNB, Solana, and Tether USDT in market cap ranking, outperforming most cryptocurrencies in the process. The momentum in XRP’s price has drawn attention to fresh speculation surrounding Ripple’s use of its escrow reserves for RLUSD mints.
Ripple, the company behind XRP, is rumored to be considering using its escrowed XRP as the initial reserve for RLUSD minting. With approximately 37.24 billion tokens in escrow, Ripple unlocks a set portion of 1 billion XRP tokens every month. RLUSD is Ripple’s new dollar-backed stablecoin set to launch soon, pending regulatory approval from the New York Department of Financial Services.
A crypto analyst on social media platform X suggests that RLUSD could provide Ripple with a mechanism to sell to its On-Demand Liquidity partners, boosting working capital and providing utility for the locked XRP tokens in Ripple’s possession. This strategy could lead to a substantial liquidity injection, a controlled reduction in XRP’s total supply, and positive implications for the XRP price and XRPL ecosystem.
If RLUSD gains widespread adoption, there will be indirect demand for XRP, increasing its utility and potentially driving up its price. The minting process of RLUSD could involve locking up XRP tokens as escrows, further reducing circulating supply and supporting price growth. XRP is currently trading at $2.74, up by about 12% and 90% in the past 24 hours and seven days, respectively.
Whale accumulation in XRP wallets holding between 1 million and 10 million XRP has reached over 679.1 million tokens in three weeks, valued at approximately $1.66 billion. This accumulation trend could continue to push the XRP price higher, with potential targets above $3 and a new all-time high above $3.40.
With competition in the stablecoin market dominated by heavyweights like USDT and USDC, Ripple’s entry with RLUSD could be game-changing. Given Ripple’s history in the crypto industry, it may have a competitive advantage. The future looks promising for XRP as it continues to defy odds and aim for new price milestones.
