Ripple Taps SBI to Distribute RLUSD Stablecoin in Japan, But XRP Falls

Ripple Labs has entered into a collaboration with SBI Holdings, a major Japanese financial services conglomerate, according to an announcement on Friday.

The memorandum of understanding is to distribute Ripple’s stablecoin, RLUSD, in Japan through SBI subsidiary SBI VC Trade, starting in Q1 2026.

SBI VC Trade holds multiple Japanese financial licenses, including being the first Electronic Payment Instruments Exchange Service Provider in the country. This will make RLUSD available to expand stablecoin options in the Japanese market.

The $300B stablecoin market is set to grow into the trillions.

Together with @sbivc_official, we’re bringing $RLUSD to Japan in early 2026, offering users and institutions a trusted, regulated and fully-backed stablecoin built for enterprise use cases.

— Ripple (@Ripple) August 22, 2025

RLUSD Coming to Japan

“The introduction of RLUSD will not just expand the option of stablecoins in the Japanese market, but is a major step forward in the reliability and convenience of stablecoins,” said SBI VC Trade CEO Tomohiko Kondo.

It was unclear from the announcement whether the stablecoins would be limited to financial institutions or available for retail use.

Ripple has been a long-time partner of SBI, with the collaboration between the two beginning in 2016. SBI Ripple Asia, a joint venture with SBI holding 60% and Ripple 40% was formed to expand the latter’s services across Asian markets.

Ripple’s stablecoin, which was launched in December, is a minnow compared to the major issuers such as Tether and Circle. While its circulating supply has grown steadily this year, it is just $666 million, which gives the firm a 0.24% market share of the $280 billion stablecoin sector.

In related news, Ripple has extended the Gemini crypto exchange a $75 million secured credit line, expandable up to $150 million, as the exchange chases a US public listing. Once borrowing has surpassed the initial $75 million, requests can be denominated in the RLUSD stablecoin. Gemini could settle its IPO in the Ripple stablecoin, observed industry analysts.

Ethereum self-custody wallet MetaMask has also entered the extremely crowded stablecoin arena with its own offering, mUSD.

XRP Prices Weaken

The bullish news wasn’t enough to keep Ripple’s cross-border payments token buoyed up today. XRP has lost 3.6% over the past 24 hours as it tanked to a three-week low of $2.83 during the Friday morning Asian trading session.

Despite all the bullish developments for Ripple, such as increased odds for a spot XRP ETF approval, the token has declined 22% from its July 18 all-time high.

XRP has also fallen faster than the wider crypto market, which is down around 8.5% from its total capitalization peak on August 14.