Ripple, Robinhood expand partnership to bring RLUSD to retail and institutional markets

Ripple and Robinhood have expanded their partnership to bring the RLUSD stablecoin to Robinhood’s retail and institutional businesses, alongside new integrations spanning treasury management, lending and trading services.

RLUSD is already available on Robinhood Chain and Bitstamp by Robinhood, with a launch in the Robinhood app planned for later this year, according to a Tuesday announcement coinciding with Ripple’s Swell 2026 conference in New York. Robinhood also plans to use the stablecoin on the XRP Ledger for institutional settlement.

Robinhood will also adopt Ripple Treasury to manage its global cash and liquidity operations, including payment processing, cash flow forecasting and intercompany transactions. The integration extends the partnership beyond customer-facing services to Robinhood’s internal financial infrastructure.

The partnership also expands Robinhood’s existing relationship with Ripple Prime, which provides financing services to Bitstamp by Robinhood and plans to introduce perpetual futures trading on the exchange later this year.

Launched in December 2024, RLUSD has reached a market capitalization of $2.57 billion, with nearly $1 billion issued on the XRP Ledger, according to DeFiLlama data. Robinhood reported 28.6 million funded customers globally as of August, offering a potentially significant distribution channel for the stablecoin.

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Ripple expands into custody and trade finance

Ripple also announced on Tuesday an expanded partnership with financial services giant BNY, which now supports custody of XRP and RLUSD through its Digital Asset Custody platform. The companies plan to work together to allow BNY clients to mint and redeem RLUSD directly through the bank and broaden support for tokenized assets issued on the XRP Ledger.

Separately, Ripple partnered with working-capital platform C2FO to bring financing and settlement for its new Instant Pay service onto the XRP Ledger, using RLUSD. The service is designed to let suppliers receive payments against approved invoices in seconds rather than waiting days for traditional bank settlement.

A C2FO spokesperson told Cointelegraph the service is currently in testing, with a controlled launch and the first RLUSD transactions on the XRP Ledger expected by the end of the year.

The string of announcements on Tuesday followed Ripple’s receipt of final approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Monday to establish a national trust bank. The institution will manage reserves backing RLUSD and provide digital asset custody services, while stablecoin issuance will remain with Ripple’s New York-regulated subsidiary.

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