Key Takeaways
- Upbit and Bithumb completed RLUSD’s listings across South Korea’s four largest cryptocurrency exchanges.
- Top Korean exchanges now offer direct won access alongside bitcoin and tether markets.
- Liquidity across the country’s largest trading platforms will gauge sustained RLUSD demand.
Korea’s Largest Crypto Exchanges Complete the Rollout
RLUSD has now secured listings across South Korea’s four biggest crypto exchanges, giving Ripple’s stablecoin its broadest access yet in one of the world’s most active digital asset markets. Coinone and Korbit paved the way earlier, while Upbit and Bithumb completed the expansion, putting RLUSD in front of a much larger pool of won-based traders.
On July 30, Ripple Senior Vice President of Stablecoins and Standard Custody CEO Jack McDonald highlighted RLUSD’s expansion across Korea’s top exchanges on X:
“RLUSD is now live across Korea’s four largest exchanges. Upbit & Bithumb — Korea’s two largest licensed exchanges — have added direct RLUSD trading, joining Coinone & Korbit. Regulated, fully-reserved access for institutions and retail, direct in KRW. Onwards!”
The Ripple executive’s post on X responded to Upbit’s RLUSD announcement, posted on July 27, that trading would open in KRW, BTC and USDT markets. The listing gave traders multiple ways to access RLUSD and brought the stablecoin onto South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.
Bithumb Completes Access Across the Top Four
On July 29, Bithumb became the fourth of South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges to list RLUSD, opening a direct KRW market while supporting deposits and withdrawals exclusively through the XRP Ledger.
Coinone announced an RLUSD/KRW market on March 23 while Korbit also supported the stablecoin before Upbit and Bithumb expanded RLUSD’s reach to South Korea’s two largest cryptocurrency exchanges. Coinone’s listing gave RLUSD an early presence in South Korea’s won-based stablecoin market.
Ripple Expands RLUSD Beyond Exchange Listings
The Korean rollout is part of a broader effort to make RLUSD usable across trading, payments, and institutional settlement. According to Ripple’s RLUSD overview, the stablecoin’s reserves include cash deposits, short-term U.S. Treasury securities, government money market funds, repurchase agreements and other cash equivalents held in segregated accounts, with monthly attestations supporting redemption at $1 for eligible customers.
Ripple has also built operational infrastructure around that reserve model. Its Ripple Mint platform lets approved institutions mint and redeem RLUSD through a web console or integrate those functions directly into internal systems using APIs and webhooks. Customers can track balances and transaction status, receive real-time updates as minting and redemption transactions progress, and select supported fiat or crypto payout destinations. BNY serves as the stablecoin’s primary reserve custodian and provides transaction banking services that support reserve-asset and cash movements tied to conversions.
The company has also widened RLUSD’s reach across blockchain networks and major exchanges. Initially issued on the XRP Ledger and Ethereum, RLUSD has expanded to the XRPL EVM Sidechain, Base, Optimism, Ink and Unichain, extending its use across exchanges, decentralized finance protocols, payment applications and other onchain services.
