Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse reaffirmed the company’s backing for XRP as it expands access to Ripple USD (RLUSD), widening the stablecoin’s reach without an announced estimate of any effect on XRP use.
“We will never give up on XRP,” Garlinghouse said Wednesday at Ripple Swell 2026 in New York. He described XRP and RLUSD as complementary assets.
Ripple’s Oct. 28 company report places both assets within a broader business offering that includes payments, custody, prime brokerage and treasury management. The company said its products enabled more than $16 trillion in transactions in 2025 and projected a $900 million annualized product-revenue run rate by the end of 2026.
Coinbase and Ripple announced Wednesday that retail and institutional clients can access RLUSD through Coinbase Prime, Coinbase Exchange and Coinbase’s retail app. Customers can exchange U.S. dollars or supported dollar-denominated stablecoins for RLUSD at a one-to-one rate. Deposits and withdrawals are supported on the XRP Ledger, Base and Ethereum. The announcement expands Coinbase’s RLUSD access.
Ripple said on Oct. 27 that RLUSD was available on Robinhood Chain and Bitstamp by Robinhood. It also said Robinhood plans to use the stablecoin for institutional settlement on the XRP Ledger.
Ripple’s global launch of RLUSD began Dec. 17, 2024. The company describes the stablecoin as backed by U.S. dollar deposits, U.S. government bonds and cash equivalents.
The Coinbase and Robinhood announcements do not estimate whether the new access will affect XRP use or demand. Coinbase Global Exchange customers are due to get access in a later phase, including the option to use RLUSD as collateral, but Ripple gave no date. Robinhood app availability is expected later in 2026.
