Ripple | Bluechip

RLUSD by Ripple is backed by US treasury bills, government money market funds, and bank deposits. These assets present some of the lowest credit and duration risks while trading in a highly liquid secondary market.
Reserves backing RLUSD are held by the Bank of New York Mellon, the largest custodian of financial securities in the world. The bank is classified as a “systemically important financial institution” by the Financial Stability Board.
RLUSD is issued by Ripple via Standard Custody & Trust Company, which is regulated as a limited purpose trust company by the New York Department of Financial Services. This subjects the issuer to some of the most stringent guidelines and monitoring requirements.
Reserves backing RLUSD are held in segregated accounts for the benefit of token holders, and cannot be used for the issuer’s regular business operations. These assets will likely remain protected from any potential bankruptcy of the issuer.
Institutional users can mint or redeem RLUSD directly with the issuer. But retail users are limited to secondary markets via centralized or decentralized exchanges.
Suitability - RLUSD is most suitable for (a) institutions seeking to make and receive payments, and (b) passive users seeking exposure to USD in an onchain format.

The following outcomes may improve factor scores and lead to a rating upgrade.

Ripple enables access to primary liquidity for retail users to mint or redeem RLUSD directly.

RLUSD is backed by US treasury bills and government money market funds. Reserves are held in segregated accounts by regulated custodians, primarily BNY Mellon. They will likely remain protected from a potential bankruptcy of the issuer.

The peg is maintained by market participants executing arbitrage trades against the reserves. However, access to primary liquidity is limited only to institutional users.

RLUSD is issued by Standard Custody & Trust Company, which was founded in 2018 by Arthur Britto and David Schwartz. Both founders were also the initial developers of the XRP Ledger.

Standard Custody & Trust Company (New York, US) is led by Jack McDonald, while Ripple Labs (California, US) is led by Brad Garlinghouse.

This factor evaluates censorship resistance using indicators like regulatory oversight, asset custody, and governance controls.

Decentralization is not a key objective for Standard Custody & Trust Company, who prioritizes compliance over decentralization. RLUSD is not suitable for users who prioritize censorship resistance over other factors. Therefore, this factor is not assessed.

RLUSD is issued by Standard Custody & Trust Company, which is regulated as a limited purpose trust company by the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). This subjects the issuer to stringent guidelines and monitoring requirements.

The issuer publishes monthly attestations of reserves from an independent accounting firm. However, it does not specify redemption timelines in RLUSD's terms of use.