Ripple’s US dollar stablecoin RLUSD is now available on all four of South Korea’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges, in a move that significantly broadens direct access for won-based traders in one of the world’s busiest digital asset markets.
The completion of listings on Upbit and Bithumb means RLUSD now trades alongside the Korean won on the country’s two largest exchanges, adding to earlier launches on Coinone and Korbit and giving the stablecoin its widest distribution yet in South Korea.
Ripple Senior Vice President of Stablecoins and Standard Custody chief executive Jack McDonald drew attention to the development on 30 July, highlighting via X that RLUSD had secured coverage across all of Korea’s top platforms.
His post came in response to Upbit’s 27 July announcement that it would introduce RLUSD trading in KRW, BTC and USDT markets. That listing opened several trading routes into RLUSD while placing the stablecoin on South Korea’s biggest cryptocurrency venue by volume.
Bithumb completes big-four rollout
Bithumb followed shortly afterwards, becoming the fourth of South Korea’s largest exchanges to add RLUSD on 29 July. The platform launched a direct KRW trading pair and confirmed that deposits and withdrawals would be supported solely via the XRP Ledger.
Coinone had already introduced an RLUSD/KRW market on 23 March, giving the stablecoin an early foothold in South Korea’s won-denominated stablecoin segment. Korbit also added support for RLUSD before the token’s reach was extended to Upbit and Bithumb, completing coverage across the country’s four leading exchanges.
The staggered rollout across Coinone, Korbit, Upbit and Bithumb is expected to provide a clearer picture of whether broader distribution in a single market can translate into sustained liquidity for RLUSD trading pairs.
Part of wider RLUSD strategy
Ripple’s South Korean expansion forms one strand of a wider strategy to position RLUSD for use in trading, payments and institutional settlement.
According to Ripple’s published overview of RLUSD, the stablecoin is backed by reserves consisting of cash deposits, short-term U.S. Treasury securities, government money market funds, repurchase agreements and other cash-equivalent instruments. These assets are held in segregated accounts, with monthly attestations intended to support redemption at $1 for eligible customers.
Ripple has also developed dedicated infrastructure around this reserve model. Its Ripple Mint platform allows approved institutional users to mint and redeem RLUSD through a web-based console, or to embed the same functions directly into internal systems using APIs and webhooks.
Clients can monitor balances and transaction progress, receive real-time status updates on minting and redemption activity, and choose from supported fiat or cryptocurrency payout options when converting in or out of RLUSD.
BNY acts as RLUSD’s primary reserve custodian and provides transaction banking services, handling reserve-asset management and cash movements linked to conversions between the stablecoin and underlying assets.
Expanding across blockchains and services
Beyond South Korea and centralised exchanges, Ripple has been extending RLUSD’s footprint across multiple blockchain networks and onchain services.
Originally launched on the XRP Ledger and Ethereum, RLUSD has since been deployed on the XRPL EVM Sidechain, Base, Optimism, Ink and Unichain. That multichain approach is designed to make the stablecoin available across a broader range of exchanges, decentralised finance protocols, payment applications and other blockchain-based services.
Ripple has signalled that RLUSD is beginning to see greater institutional uptake, pointing to eight developments across payments, infrastructure and global access as markers of momentum. These include areas such as Mastercard support and initiatives involving Japanese partners, as the company seeks to embed RLUSD more deeply in cross-border and digital-asset payment flows.
With coverage now secured on Coinone, Korbit, Upbit and Bithumb, trading activity on South Korea’s dominant exchanges will be closely watched as an early test of whether expanded market access can translate into deeper and more durable liquidity for RLUSD.
