Ripple Carries Out Massive RLUSD Burns, What’s Going On?

[Ben Graham]

Ripple has carried out a series of large RLUSD burns in recent weeks to remove millions of the stablecoin from circulation. According to data from the RLUSD burn tracker @RL_Tracker, more than 2.7 million RLUSD were recently destroyed in a single transaction, the biggest burn in many weeks. 

Ripple Burns Massive Amounts Of RLUSD

Crypto burns are not new to the crypto industry, especially when it comes to stablecoins. Interestingly, data from the RLUSD burn tracker, @RL_Tracker, has revealed an uptick in the amount of RLUSD burned in the past two weeks, which is worth noting.

Particularly, the latest data from @RL_Tracker, which was revealed in a post on the social media platform X, shows that 2,714,248 RLUSD were recently burned at RLUSD Treasury. Blockchain records from on-chain analytics platform Etherscan confirm that these tokens were transferred into a null address from which they cannot be recovered or used, effectively reducing the outstanding supply for good.

This was not an isolated occurrence. Ripple has been carrying out a string of large burns in recent weeks, with notable examples including two transactions of 1,000,000 RLUSD each on September 3 and another 1,000,000 RLUSD burn on August 29. Together, these actions have brought the total burned supply to about six million RLUSD tokens in a very short span

However, these reductions have been characterized by issuances of millions of tokens in the past few days. Most recently, @RL_Tracker reported that 312,000 RLUSD were minted by the RLUSD Treasury in the past 24 hours. 

What’s Going On With RLUSD Burns?

This back-and-forth between burning and minting is part of Ripple’s supply management cycle of RLUSD, where tokens are constantly adjusted in response to market demand and redemptions. 

RLUSD is pegged 1:1 to the US dollar and operates on both the XRP Ledger and Ethereum. Like other asset-backed stablecoins, it is fully collateralized by fiat reserves and subject to monthly attestations. When demand for RLUSD rises, Ripple issues new tokens into circulation. On the other hand, excess supply is no longer needed when tokens are redeemed for dollars, and Ripple burns the surplus by sending it to an inaccessible address.

Stablecoin mints and burns are not unique to Ripple. Tether, the largest stablecoin issuer, regularly conducts large-scale mints and burns of USDT to adjust supply. The key difference from normal cryptocurrency burns, such as those seen with Shiba Inu, is that stablecoin burns are not carried out to create scarcity, which contributes to price action. 

At present, RLUSD’s total supply is around 728.7 million tokens and all minted tokens are actively being circulated. The stablecoin has a market cap of about $728 million and has seen its trading volume climb above $87 million in the past 24 hours. It also continues to hold its $1 peg firmly.