This week, Ripple launched Ripple Mint, which was initially seen as a new product offering with features like APIs, webhooks, and access to multiple blockchains for institutions using Ripple USD. However, it’s becoming clear this is a strategic challenge to Circle. Ripple intentionally named it after Circle Mint – Circle’s similar product – and launched it at a time when Circle’s business is facing significant difficulties.
Whether the same launch does anything for XRP is a separate question; and a much less settled one.
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Circle’s exposed flank
To see why Ripple’s current moves are significant, consider what Wall Street recently said about Circle. Mizuho Securities lowered its rating of Circle Internet Group and significantly reduced its expected stock price – from $85 to $50. This wasn’t because people were using USDC less, but due to concerns about how Circle generates revenue.
Circle uses a system, often called a ‘float-capture’ model, where it earns income from the U.S. Treasuries that back the USDC stablecoin. They keep about 38% of this income and share the rest with partners who help distribute USDC. Coinbase is by far the biggest partner, receiving around half of the income under an agreement that’s up for renewal in August. This setup worked well when there weren’t many other options available.
OpenUSD disrupted the market by charging minimal management fees and directing almost all profits to its distributors. Mizuho analysts believe this forces competitors like Circle to lower their own profit margins, even without losing customers, as partners can now leverage OpenUSD as a bargaining chip. As a result, Mizuho significantly increased its projected distribution costs for 2027 – from 64% to 73% of revenue – and lowered its estimated adjusted EBITDA for the same year from around $1.09 billion to $699 million.
The problem with Circle isn’t a lack of users; it’s that they don’t manage how their system is spread and accessed.
Ripple’s structural difference
Ripple Mint is significant beyond just being a new feature. Unlike many stablecoin issuers who rely on partners to distribute their currency, Ripple operates core businesses like international payments, digital asset storage, and financial services for institutions. RLUSD isn’t simply sold off to others; it’s integrated into the existing suite of services Ripple provides directly to its clients.
Mint builds on this idea by letting institutions directly connect to and manage RLUSD within their own systems through APIs and webhooks. This means Ripple is integrating the token directly into customer infrastructure, rather than relying on exchanges. Because there’s no middleman between the issuer and the institution, there are no agreements like the one with Coinbase that need to be renegotiated.
While this doesn’t necessarily make Ripple financially better than Circle, creating and maintaining a sales team and necessary infrastructure costs a lot of money – something Circle avoided by partnering with others to rapidly grow its reach. However, it does protect Ripple from the current issues that are reducing Circle’s profits.
As an analyst, I’m watching the regulatory landscape closely, and it’s definitely a point in favor of RLUSD. It’s issued by Standard Custody & Trust Company, which is a trust company chartered by New York’s financial regulator, the NYDFS. Plus, Ripple Payments Europe has full authorization under Europe’s MiCA regulations, granted by Luxembourg’s CSSF, and also operates as a licensed electronic money institution. This puts them on ESMA’s register, and they’re part of a growing group of only 294 authorized firms. For any financial institution deciding which dollar token to integrate into their payment systems, the combination of strong NYDFS oversight and European regulatory access is a really compelling advantage that few competitors can offer.
The scale reality
This doesn’t mean RLUSD is trying to compete with USDC in the market. It isn’t, and implying that would be inaccurate.
From my analysis, USDC continues to be a leading stablecoin alongside its main competitor, in a market currently valued around $310 billion. While RLUSD exists, it’s significantly smaller in comparison. I believe Circle has built advantages that would be very difficult for Ripple to overcome quickly. Specifically, they’ve spent years establishing integrations with various platforms, have strong liquidity on exchanges, and just recently received approval for a national trust bank charter through First National Digital Currency Bank – all things that take considerable time and effort to achieve.
It’s more accurate to say Ripple is focusing on a specific niche: institutions that need the ability to programmatically issue and redeem digital assets, and a regulated provider with service across Europe. They aren’t trying to completely replace USDC. As issuing digital assets becomes more common, Ripple’s realistic goal is to become the preferred integration platform for institutional money flows. Trying to surpass Circle anytime soon isn’t feasible.
Now the XRP question
What Ripple revealed in the latter part of its statement is particularly important for those who own XRP, and it hasn’t been discussed enough.
Ripple explains that the expansion of RLUSD to networks like Base, Optimism, Ink, and Unichain is built on the XRPL EVM Sidechain. This allows RLUSD to work with applications on these networks (EVM composability) while still utilizing the core XRP Ledger for processing transactions and maintaining activity. Ripple also notes that XRP will play a bigger role in providing liquidity, enabling settlements, facilitating swaps, acting as collateral, and powering payments across all of these connected networks.
Strong support for RLUSD is becoming apparent. Over half of all RLUSD tokens are now held on the XRP Ledger, and trading volume has exceeded $2.5 billion since its release. Furthermore, Mastercard chose RLUSD and the XRP Ledger for a new payment program using artificial intelligence, which means XRPL technology will be integrated into Mastercard’s settlement process.
The argument against the idea that these new platforms will significantly boost XRP’s value is simple, and it mirrors concerns raised about Ethereum throughout the year. XRP isn’t used to pay fees on networks like Base, Optimism, Ink, or Unichain. When people use RLUSD on those networks, the transaction fees are paid using *those* platforms’ own cryptocurrencies, not XRP. These sidechains simply connect to the XRPL; they don’t automatically create demand for XRP just by existing.
The Robinhood Chain paradox highlights a strange situation: the system was incredibly popular and widely used, yet the underlying technology that made it work generated very little actual financial benefit. Joe Lubin, a founder of Ethereum, believes that as the system grows, demand for its core assets will naturally increase. However, others argue that the basic technology is being offered at a very low cost, while the applications built on top of it are capturing most of the profits.
Ripple believes XRP will benefit from the growth of stablecoins, specifically RLUSD. While the progress of RLUSD and the positive developments on the XRP Ledger, like its supply migration and Mastercard support, are encouraging, it’s important to note that RLUSD’s success doesn’t automatically mean XRP is also succeeding. Currently, we only see evidence of RLUSD’s positive performance, not necessarily XRP benefiting from it.
What to watch
Three measurable signals will settle both halves of this over the coming quarters.
As a crypto investor, I’m watching the upcoming Coinbase renewal in August with Circle closely. Basically, if Coinbase starts taking a bigger cut of the profits from the USDC reserves, it’ll prove what Mizuho Bank is saying – that Ripple’s way of handling distribution is actually a smarter approach and could become even more appealing.
For Rocket League USD (RLUSD), we’re watching to see if Mint users become regular, identifiable clients, and if the amount of RLUSD available keeps increasing now that it’s expanded to more blockchains.
For XRP, the key question isn’t just the announcement of new developments, but whether more RLUSD transactions actually happen on the XRP Ledger and its EVM Sidechain as the token becomes more widely used. This ratio of transactions – how much activity happens on these chains – will be the real measure of whether Ripple can successfully build value. The answer will be clear from publicly available blockchain data.
2026-07-24 11:51