Stablecoins move deeper into banking and institutional settlement · Issue 021

EditorialIntelligence Brief

Editorial cover for Stablecoins move deeper into banking and institutional settlement

Market View

Stablecoins are moving deeper into conventional banking infrastructure. Fiserv’s live bank-distribution model and Lloyds/Visa’s institutional USDC settlement show two different routes toward the same outcome: digital money operating underneath familiar banking and treasury workflows. For Ripple, the opportunity is increasingly about whether RLUSD, XRPL and eventually XRP can capture economic activity inside this emerging settlement layer.

Signal stack

Newsletter highlights

Fiserv puts stablecoins inside existing bank software

Fiserv has launched its Digital Asset Platform with live financial-institution clients, beginning with Roughrider Coin for Bank of North Dakota’s interbank network. More than 90 banks and credit unions can access the system through Fiserv’s existing commercial-banking interface. The important feature is distribution: institutions can access blockchain-based settlement without rebuilding their banking stack around crypto. Roughrider Coin uses Solana, VersaBank and Fireblocks; no Ripple, XRP or XRPL involvement has been disclosed.

Lloyds and Visa settle institutional payments using USDC

Lloyds Banking Group and Visa completed a seven-day live pilot settling $750,000 of payment obligations using USDC, including weekend transactions. Lloyds said funds reached Visa in the United States in under an hour. Again, there is no disclosed Ripple or XRP role. But together with recent tokenized-deposit initiatives, the pilot strengthens the broader shift toward continuously available settlement assets beneath existing payment networks.

RLUSD is now a multi-billion-dollar settlement asset

Ripple’s transparency reporting shows approximately $2.409 billion of RLUSD in circulation against roughly $2.5315 billion of reserves as of 24 September. Ripple is positioning RLUSD across payments, treasury, collateral and settlement, with distribution extending beyond XRPL. That expands Ripple’s institutional stablecoin footprint, but RLUSD adoption should not be treated automatically as XRP demand.

Stablecoins move further into banking law

Florida’s payment-stablecoin framework took effect today, establishing requirements around issuance, redemption and reserve backing while preserving banks’ ability to issue tokenized deposits, use distributed ledgers and provide stablecoin custody. The law is not specific to Ripple or RLUSD, but it is another example of digital-money infrastructure being absorbed into conventional financial regulation.

1 October 2026 intraday snapshot.

Broader Market Pulse

BTCBitcoin

~$83,816

0.9% 24h

ETHEthereum

~$2,694

0.4% 24h

XRPXRP

~$1.49

2.1% 24h

Major crypto assets remain relatively contained, but XRP is underperforming BTC and ETH in the current session. Bitcoin dominance remains near 56.8%, suggesting the market has not shifted decisively toward broad altcoin risk-taking.

BTC dominance~56.8%

Onchain Activity

Global DEX spot volume

$9.61B / 24hWeekly volume -10.12%

XRPL stablecoin balance

$1.105B-9.2% / 1d

RLUSD share of XRPL stablecoins

91.73%~$1.014B on XRPL

Global stablecoin supply

$306.25B+1.11% / 7d

That distinction matters. A large RLUSD balance gives XRPL substantial dollar liquidity, but the stronger signal would be sustained growth in transfers, trading, lending and settlement rather than stablecoin supply alone.

Fear & Greed

74Greed

Alternative.me · 1 October 2026.

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Ecosystems to Watch

SuiDeFi and spot activity

Sui’s DeFi TVL stands near $550 million, up roughly 4.4% over 24 hours, while stablecoin value has increased about 2.1% over seven days. Seven-day DEX volume has risen approximately 11.6%, giving the ecosystem simultaneous growth in capital and spot activity rather than TVL alone.

11.6% 7d DEX volume

ArbitrumDerivatives vs spot divergence

Arbitrum presents a more mixed picture. Stablecoin value is up approximately 2.6% over seven days and perpetuals volume has grown 16.6%, but spot DEX volume is down 14.3% on the weekly comparison and the latest 24-hour snapshot shows roughly $99 million of net outflows. The divergence is worth watching: derivatives activity and stablecoin liquidity are strengthening while spot activity and short-term capital flows are weaker.

16.6% 7d perpetuals volume

Project of the Day

Sky

Sky stands out because the SKY token now has a relatively direct relationship with protocol economics.

DefiLlama tracks approximately $6.0 billion in TVL, $27.05 million in 30-day fees, $13.44 million in protocol revenue and roughly $5.08 million in 30-day holder revenue. About 44% of SKY’s market capitalization is currently staked.

Sky’s documentation says staking rewards are funded through protocol surplus and open-market SKY purchases rather than new token issuance. SKY has a maximum supply of approximately 23.46 billion, with new emissions disabled; repurchased tokens can be burned or distributed to stakers depending on governance parameters.

That gives the token measurable value accrual tied to an operating lending and stablecoin business rather than emissions alone. The caveat is governance dependence: buyback allocation and staking rewards can change, while borrowing USDS against staked SKY introduces collateral and liquidation risk.

XRP & XRPL Positioning

Today reinforces an important separation between Ripple’s institutional expansion, XRPL adoption and XRP value accrual.

RLUSD gives Ripple a growing regulated settlement asset, while Fiserv, Visa and competing bank initiatives demonstrate that institutions increasingly want 24/7 digital-money infrastructure. That broadens the addressable market for Ripple’s payments, custody and treasury stack.

But stablecoins can settle directly without XRP. The stronger XRP thesis requires recurring economic use as bridge liquidity, collateral or a settlement intermediary when different currencies and tokenized assets need to exchange.

XRPL’s current stablecoin concentration strengthens the infrastructure base, but today’s sharp balance decline also shows why supply alone is insufficient. Repeat transaction flows and native XRP participation remain the more important confirmation signals.

Bottom Line

01Stablecoins are becoming banking infrastructure: Fiserv and Lloyds/Visa show production and live settlement models increasingly operating behind familiar financial interfaces.
02RLUSD has meaningful scale, but XRPL liquidity needs activity: RLUSD still dominates XRPL stablecoins even after today’s decline in network stablecoin balances.
03XRP’s strongest thesis remains economic utility: institutional adoption becomes more relevant to XRP when the asset is repeatedly used for liquidity, collateral or settlement—not simply because Ripple or XRPL participates in the broader infrastructure.

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Sources

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