Ripple’s RLUSD Mystery: Did the Minting Machine Take a Coffee Break? ☕

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It’s been over a week since the Ripple blockchain giant last minted any RLUSD stablecoins, which is roughly the same amount of time it takes for a sloth to finish a crossword puzzle. March ended and April began with a flurry of activity, as Ripple churned out 117,000,000 RLUSD in three batches like a caffeinated printing press on a mission.

First, 17,000,000 RLUSD rolled off the digital assembly line on March 28, followed by 50,000,000 on April 1 (no, this wasn’t a prank), and another 50,000,000 on April 2. Then, silence. Crickets. The kind of silence that makes you wonder if the minting machine decided to take a long weekend in the Bahamas.

💵💵💵💵💵💵💵 50,000,000 #RLUSD minted at RLUSD Treasury.

— Ripple Stablecoin Tracker (@RL_Tracker) April 2, 2025

Fast forward to April 9, and still no new RLUSD tokens have been minted, according to the Ripple Stablecoin Tracker on X (formerly known as Twitter, but let’s not get into that). However, there’s a twist in this tale that might explain the sudden pause. It seems RLUSD is about to become the Swiss Army knife of stablecoins, expanding its utility in ways that would make even MacGyver jealous.

Ripple’s $1.25 Billion Power Move: Because Why Not?

This week, Ripple announced its largest acquisition ever—a $1.25 billion deal to buy Hidden Road, a global multi-asset broker. To put that into perspective, $1.25 billion is roughly the cost of 312,500,000 avocado toasts, or one very fancy yacht. Hidden Road is no small fry; it clears $3 trillion annually for over 300 top financial institutions, including hedge funds, market makers, and OTC desks. Basically, it’s the financial equivalent of a backstage pass to the world’s biggest concert.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse took to X to gush about the deal, calling it a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for crypto to access the largest and most trusted traditional markets, and vice versa.” Translation: “We’re about to make crypto and traditional finance BFFs.”

Today, @Ripple announced the acquisition of Hidden Road for $1.25B, one of the largest deals ever in the crypto space. But the price tag isn’t what’s most important – it’s that this deal marks a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for crypto to access the largest and most trusted…

— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) April 8, 2025

So, what does this mean for RLUSD? Well, it’s about to become the collateral of choice for Hidden Road’s brokerage services, including crypto trading. Ripple’s press release described this as a way to solidify RLUSD’s position as an “enterprise-grade USD-backed stablecoin with real utility.” In other words, RLUSD is no longer just a stablecoin—it’s the stablecoin that’s about to bridge the gap between crypto and traditional finance like a financial Indiana Jones.

Ripple president Monica Long summed it up perfectly: “This is no small feat to achieve today,” she said, adding that “in combination with using the XRP Ledger for post-trade settlement in the future, means the possibilities are staggering.” Translation: “Buckle up, folks. This is going to be wild.”

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2025-04-09 13:33