Ripple is the largest holder of $XRP. IBTimes US

KEY POINTS

  • $RLUSD will play a 'premium role' in Ripple's growth this year: Ripple President Monica Long
  • Ripple dollars will 'imminently' be available on bigger exchanges this year, Long said
  • $XRP is 'likely' next in line for ETF approval after Bitcoin and Ethereum, she projected

Ripple President Monica Long is very optimistic about 2025's possibilities for the company and its offerings, and users of the rising Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin and XRP cryptocurrency could be in for more big news in the coming weeks.

The fintech company just recently launched the RLUSD stablecoin while it has long been linked to XRP, the native token of the XRP Ledger. In the way MicroStrategy is to Bitcoin, Ripple is the largest known corporate holder of XRP.

What 2025 Holds for $RLUSD

In a Tuesday interview with Bloomberg Crypto, Long revealed that Ripple's stablecoin will "imminently" be available on additional crypto exchanges.

She was pressed about the possibility of RLUSD going live on major exchanges such as Coinbase, but she only said Ripple continues to "expand distribution and availability of Ripple dollars" in other platforms.

Although she did not provide a specific timeline, her positive tone and big smile during the questioning suggests that it won't be long before RLUSD is taken in by other exchanges.

Notably, RLUSD is only available in five exchanges, unlike other major stablecoins such as Tether (USDT) and USDC, which are popular on the biggest crypto exchanges.

There were earlier comparisons between RLUSD and USDT, considering how RLUSD is a regulated stablecoin, while USDT's status as a regulated asset is unclear due to a lack of transparency from Tether.

Long also said that Ripple is very positive about the overall crypto landscape this year. She said the company expects 2025 "to be a big year" for the broader industry with institutional adoption still being a key driver.

For the company's growth projection in 2025, Long specifically noted that RLUSD "will have a premium role" in the development.

$XRP ETF in 2025?

"I think we will see one very soon," Long responded when asked about the potential for an XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF). "I think XRP is likely to be next in line," she predicted.

XRP's journey back from below $1 to above $2 has been nothing but glorious in the last quarter of 2024, fueled by much hope around regulatory clarity and relief under a new government and also filings for XRP ETFs.

So far, there have been four filings for XRP ETFs: Bitwise, Canary Capital, 21Shares, and WisdomTree. Among its altcoin peers outside Bitcoin and Ethereum, XRP has the most interest so far in terms of spot products, at least based on the ETF filings.

Ripple expects the approval of such filings to "accelerate," especially with the entry of a new administration in the White House.

Ripple was undoubtedly the comeback story of the crypto industry in 2024. It remains to be seen how 2025 will play out – whether RLUSD's availability in bigger exchanges and XRP ETFs' approval progress will affect the company that was, in the past four years, mostly focused on proving the SEC wrong in its security tagging of the XRP token.

Originally published on IBTimes