Ripple and Robinhood Expand Partnership to List RLUSD for Retail and Institutions

Ripple and Robinhood have broadened their stablecoin push, expanding the rollout of RLUSD beyond initial exchange access to include both retail and institutional customers. The update also reaches deeper into Robinhood’s operational stack, with plans to integrate Ripple’s treasury and settlement tools alongside new services tied to Ripple’s ecosystem.

The announcements were made Tuesday, alongside Ripple’s Swell 2026 conference in New York. Robinhood said RLUSD is already available on Robinhood Chain and Bitstamp by Robinhood, and it plans to bring the stablecoin into the Robinhood app later this year. The company also intends to support institutional settlement using RLUSD on the XRP Ledger.

Key takeaways

• RLUSD access expands: Robinhood plans an in-app RLUSD launch later this year after availability on Robinhood Chain and Bitstamp by Robinhood.
• Settlement use case grows: Robinhood expects to use RLUSD on the XRP Ledger for institutional settlement.
• Infrastructure integration: Robinhood will adopt Ripple Treasury to manage global cash and liquidity operations, including forecasting and intercompany transactions.
• Ripple’s partner network widens: BNY will support custody of XRP and RLUSD through its Digital Asset Custody platform, including the ability for clients to mint and redeem RLUSD via the bank.
• Tokenized trade finance advances: Ripple’s Instant Pay service will move financing and settlement for approved invoices onto the XRP Ledger using RLUSD, with C2FO involvement.

Robinhood widens RLUSD distribution—then moves upstream into treasury

The most immediate change is distribution. According to the Tuesday announcement, RLUSD is already live on Robinhood Chain and Bitstamp by Robinhood. Robinhood’s planned next step is a launch of RLUSD directly within the Robinhood app later this year—an upgrade that could materially improve end-user access, especially for customers who may not interact with exchange rails or chain-specific products.

Robinhood also framed the expansion in terms of institutional utility. In addition to customer-facing availability, it said it plans to use RLUSD on the XRP Ledger for institutional settlement. That matters because settlement-focused deployments can differ from typical retail trading flows: they often require higher reliability, explicit operational controls, and integration with corporate treasury processes.

Beyond user access, the partnership is deepening into internal operations. Robinhood said it will use Ripple Treasury to manage global cash and liquidity operations, including payment processing, cash flow forecasting, and intercompany transactions. In practical terms, this moves the relationship from “where customers can hold or transact a stablecoin” to “how a large financial platform manages and routes liquidity,” potentially reducing friction between fiat operations and tokenized settlement workflows.

Ripple’s RLUSD momentum: size, issuance footprint, and customer base

RLUSD is already scaling in the background. DeFiLlama data cited in the announcement pegs RLUSD’s market capitalization at $2.57 billion, with nearly $1 billion issued on the XRP Ledger. RLUSD launched in December 2024.

Robinhood’s customer reach is another factor that the announcement implicitly connects to adoption. Robinhood reported 28.6 million funded customers globally as of August, suggesting that if RLUSD support expands smoothly through Robinhood’s product surfaces, RLUSD could benefit from a high-volume distribution channel rather than relying only on niche integrations.

Still, readers should keep in mind that “distribution potential” does not automatically translate into faster stablecoin usage. The real test will be how many Robinhood customers engage with RLUSD in practice once it reaches the app, and whether institutional settlement deployment on the XRP Ledger becomes routine rather than pilot-based.

New Ripple partnerships: custody, mint/redeem access, and tokenized trade settlement

Ripple’s Tuesday announcements also add another layer: traditional finance infrastructure. Ripple said it expanded its partnership with BNY, which now supports custody of XRP and RLUSD through its Digital Asset Custody platform. The companies also plan to work toward allowing BNY clients to mint and redeem RLUSD directly through the bank, while broadening support for tokenized assets issued on the XRP Ledger.

Custody and mint/redeem access can be significant for institutions because stablecoins often require clear operational pathways for both issuance flows and secure storage. The ability to handle these steps through a regulated banking relationship may reduce complexity for certain client types—though the timing and scope of implementation will matter as the program develops.

Ripple also highlighted an initiative aimed at enterprise payments and financing. It partnered with C2FO, a working-capital platform, to bring financing and settlement for Ripple’s Instant Pay service onto the XRP Ledger using RLUSD.

Instant Pay is described as a mechanism for suppliers to receive payments against approved invoices in seconds rather than waiting days for traditional bank settlement. A C2FO spokesperson told Cointelegraph that the service is currently in testing, with a controlled launch. The first RLUSD transactions on the XRP Ledger are expected by the end of the year.

For investors and operators, this is a key distinction: while stablecoins have often been discussed for trading and payments, trade finance use cases depend on process design—invoice verification, approval workflows, and settlement finality. The reported testing phase suggests Ripple and partners are still working through those operational details.

Trust bank approval and how it ties into the broader RLUSD plan

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

This sequencing matters because stablecoin adoption frequently hinges on how reserves are held and audited, and how custody is handled across regulated entities. With RLUSD’s expanding integrations—Robinhood’s app plans, BNY custody, and C2FO-linked trade settlement—the trust bank approval appears aligned with the practical requirements of scaling compliant distribution and infrastructure.

As these developments roll forward, the most important indicators to watch are the timeline for RLUSD’s in-app launch on Robinhood, the pace of BNY’s mint/redeem enablement, and whether Instant Pay’s RLUSD transactions transition from testing to a controlled production rollout by the end of the year.