TL;DR

Ripple took center stage today (June 3), but this time, thanks to a major development involving its stablecoin. The move comes a few days after Bitget enabled trading services with the product, thus joining the list of other well-known crypto exchanges that have embraced it in recent months.

Dubai Says Yes

Ripples stablecoin, dubbed RLUSD, was recognized by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) as a crypto token within the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC). 

This approval reinforces RLUSDs position as a trusted, enterprise-grade stablecoin, built with regulatory compliance, utility, and transparency at its core, Ripple emphasized in its official announcement. 

Jack McDonald, Senior Vice President of Stablecoins at the company, described the approval as proof of the firms commitment to building a stablecoin that meets the highest standards of trust, transparency, and utility. 

With regulation-first design and enterprise-grade features, RLUSD is uniquely positioned to drive institutional use of blockchain technology across global markets, starting with cross-border payments, he added.

The green light from Dubai allows other DFSA-licensed entities within the DIFC area to incorporate the product into their operations.

The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) is a special economic zone that serves as a financial hub for the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia (MEASA) region. It operates under its own legal system and courts, while businesses within the area benefit from a 0% corporate tax rate on qualifying income and no restrictions on capital repatriation.

In August last year, Ripple strengthened its global presence by partnering with the DIFC. A few months later, it received in-principle approval from the Dubai regulator to expand its services within the special economic area.

RLUSDs Previous Achievements

The stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the US dollar officially saw the light of day in December of last year. Initially, the exchanges that allowed trading services with it included Uphold, Bitso, Moonpay, Bitstamp, and others.

Later on, well-known names such as Gemini and Kraken also followed suit. As CryptoPotato reported last week, the latest to hop on the bandwagon was Bitget, which listed the RLUSD/USDT and RLUSD/USDC pairs. 

Despite that, Ripples financial product remains an insignificant player in the stablecoin niche, with a market cap of around $310 million. This represents a mere 0.12% of the industrys $250 billion capitalization.

It is important to note that Ripple supposedly tried to increase its presence in the stablecoin sector by acquiring Circle (the company behind USDC). Several reports indicated that the company is ready to pay over $10 billion to close the deal.

However, Circle rejected the speculation, saying that it was not for sale. It also plans to go public through an IPO in the United States.