TL;DR:
- RLUSD received regulatory approval from Japan’s Financial Services Agency and is now available to both institutions and retail users.
- The stablecoin will be distributed through SBI VC Trade on the VCTRADE platform, fulfilling an agreement signed in August 2025.
- With a market cap of $1.7 billion, RLUSD remains marginal compared to USDT’s $186 billion and USDC’s $74 billion.
Ripple received approval from Japan’s Financial Services Agency (JFSA) to operate its stablecoin RLUSD in the Japanese market. The regulator classified the token under a new category of electronic payment instrument within the country’s Payment Services Act, a framework designed specifically for foreign-issued stablecoins that meet local standards.
Japan enforces one of the most stringent regulatory regimes in the world for digital assets, making the authorization of a foreign dollar-backed token for institutional and retail use a milestone for the crypto industry.
We're proud to announce that Ripple USD ($RLUSD) is now officially available in Japan, following approval from the Japan Financial Services Agency (JFSA): https://t.co/5rJZBrFaIM
Through our partnership with SBI Group and @sbivc_official, $RLUSD will be accessible to both…
— Ripple (@Ripple) June 25, 2026
Distribution will be handled by SBI VC Trade, a subsidiary of financial conglomerate SBI Holdings and a registered provider of electronic payment instrument exchange services. Users will be able to access RLUSD through the VCTRADE platform. The launch is the result of the memorandum of understanding signed by both companies in August 2025 and deepens a relationship dating back to 2016, when Ripple and SBI began collaborating on cross-border payments and blockchain infrastructure in Asia.
RLUSD Continues to Strengthen Its Position in the Asian Market
Jack McDonald, Ripple’s Senior Vice President of Stablecoins, noted that RLUSD will act “as a bridge for payments, tokenization, and collateral management“, connecting Japanese businesses and individuals to international dollar liquidity. Tomohiko Kondo, CEO of SBI VC Trade, described the launch as “a major milestone in our collaboration” and anticipated the expansion of services and use cases built around the token.
Despite its rapid growth, RLUSD remains far behind the market leaders. With a market cap of $1.7 billion since its late 2024 launch, it falls well short of Tether’s approximately $186 billion USDT and Circle’s $74 billion USDC. Ripple positions RLUSD as an enterprise stablecoin oriented toward settlements, real-world asset tokenization, and supply chain finance, differentiating it from XRP, the token for which the company is best known.
The United States, Europe, and various Asian markets are advancing toward formal regulatory frameworks for stablecoins, making official approvals as decisive a variable as volume or liquidity when competing in this segment.
