Ripple’s RLUSD just got Binance’s strongest growth lever, can that catapult it into a top 3 asset?
Binance, the most important crypto trade by buying and selling quantity, has listed Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin on its platform.
On Jan. 21, the trade announced that it would open spot buying and selling pairs, together with RLUSD/USDT, RLUSD/U, and XRP/RLUSD, on Jan. 22 by 8 AM UTC.
Critically, Binance will provoke buying and selling on the RLUSD/USDT and RLUSD/U pairs with zero charges till additional discover.
To a informal dealer, this reads like a easy itemizing announcement. However, trade consultants famous that the transfer might essentially alter the market hierarchy and cement RLUSD’s fast growth over the previous yr.
The logic right here isn’t that Binance magically creates worth, however that the trade can change how the market routes worth. If that routing interprets into sustained web issuance, RLUSD might plausibly leap into the top three stablecoins in a quickly increasing market.
Engineering a liquidity occasion
The particular mechanics of the Binance listing suggest a push for dominance reasonably than mere participation.
By waiving charges, Binance isn’t merely including buying and selling pairs; it is subsidizing adoption. Zero-fee stablecoin pairs have a historical past of fixing market share on centralized exchanges by redirecting the place trades clear.
Kaiko’s analysis of stablecoin dynamics on Binance gives a precedent for disrupting these numbers. After the trade re-listed USDC in March 2023, the token’s market share on centralized exchanges reportedly surged from roughly 60% to above 90%.
This shift didn’t essentially imply USDC immediately grew to become the superior asset. It meant Binance made it the most affordable and most handy rail, and the market adopted the incentives.
Kaiko has additionally documented how zero-fee regimes can dominate trade quantity and reshape market construction.
This presents each a promise and a warning for Ripple’s stablecoin. Incentives can create deep liquidity shortly, however they can additionally inflate exercise that evaporates when the subsidy ends.
For RLUSD to maneuver towards the top three, two distinct “flywheels” should spin in sequence.
The first is routing adoption. Zero fees encourage market makers and high-frequency desks to cite tighter spreads and push extra flows by way of RLUSD pairs.
This improves the expertise for all individuals by deepening the order guide, decreasing slippage, and guaranteeing extra dependable execution. In stablecoin markets, the place product differentiation is commonly skinny, the popular asset is often the one that trades most effectively.
The second flywheel is balance-sheet adoption. Market cap grows solely when RLUSD is definitely held, whether or not as trade collateral, in DeFi lending markets, or in treasury allocations.
Binance creates the environment for this by increasing RLUSD utility. The itemizing announcement confirmed that portfolio margin eligibility will probably be added, growing the token’s utility in leveraged buying and selling methods.
Furthermore, inclusion in Binance Earn is deliberate. This would give customers yield-bearing incentives to carry the asset reasonably than merely commerce it.
The math behind the climb
Despite this strategic setup, the numerical hole RLUSD should shut to achieve the top three is substantial.
Data from CryptoSlate exhibits that RLUSD has a circulating provide of round $1.4 billion. This locations it among the many top 10-largest stablecoins by market cap however considerably behind market leaders Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC.
To breach the “top 3 stablecoin,” RLUSD would want roughly $5.1 billion in new circulation to displace Ethena’s USDe, whose provide sits round $6.47 billion.
Over a 12-month interval, reaching that benchmark would require roughly $424 million in web new RLUSD issuance monthly
These are giant numbers that would require RLUSD to develop 4 to seven occasions from its present base inside a comparatively tight window.
However, macro tailwinds could help this ascent.
The US Treasury has publicly argued that the stablecoin market, presently valued at round $300 billion, might develop tenfold by the tip of the last decade. That would suggest that the market might attain $3 trillion by 2030.
Meanwhile, US banking large JPMorgan is extra optimistic, projecting that stablecoins might attain $2 trillion inside two years underneath a bullish adoption state of affairs.
If these trajectories materialize, RLUSD reaching the top three is not going to solely be about stealing market share from incumbents but in addition about driving a rising tide.
Institutional plumbing over retail hype
While the Binance itemizing offers the liquidity spark, Ripple’s greatest case for the top three depends on institutional plumbing.
Over the previous two years, Ripple has assembled a stack that resembles that of a payments and capital markets infrastructure provider greater than that of a typical crypto issuer.
The basis of any potential growth is a regulatory posture that has resulted in RLUSD being issued underneath a New York DFS Limited Purpose Trust Company Charter. At the identical time, Ripple has obtained conditional approval for an OCC charter.
This twin layer of state and federal oversight units a bar for transparency and compliance that few different issuers can declare.
For company treasurers and financial institution compliance officers, this regulatory perimeter usually issues greater than model recognition.
Perhaps essentially the most direct catalyst for sticky institutional adoption is that Ripple has quietly positioned itself on the center of the global payment network as a platform that settles, secures, and strikes digital cash.
Last yr, Ripple had a $4 billion acquisition spree that included the acquisition of prime dealer Hidden Road, custody agency Palisade, treasury-management platform GTreasury, and stablecoin funds supplier Rail.
These corporations type the inspiration of a vertically built-in enterprise spanning buying and selling, custody, funds, and liquidity administration.
This transfer primarily expands RLUSD’s growth runway past crypto trade wallets. It strikes the asset into multi-asset margin and financing workflows the place stablecoin balances can scale quickly.
A stress check
The threat stays that whereas buying and selling quantity can be manufactured, adoption can’t.
Binance’s personal spot market has cooled lately, with CoinDesk Data reporting spot quantity fell to $367 billion in December 2025, the bottom since September 2024.
Yet even at these decreased ranges, Binance stays giant sufficient that a payment subsidy can reshape liquidity routing.
So, the final word hazard on this transfer is that RLUSD might develop into a “low cost rail” however not a “held asset.”
If buying and selling quantity explodes however circulating provide barely grows, the market could have its reply: Binance can create liquidity, however not essentially sturdy adoption.
For RLUSD to credibly problem for the top three, the story should evolve from “listed and traded” to “used and held.”
The submit Ripple’s RLUSD just got Binance’s strongest growth lever, can that catapult it into a top 3 asset? appeared first on CryptoSlate.
