On Jan. 7, Ripple President Monica Long discussed her company’s strategic direction during an interview with Bloomberg TV.
She highlighted Ripple’s ongoing efforts to increase the distribution and availability of Ripple USD (RLUSD) across additional exchanges, indicating that further developments and announcements are expected imminently. Long emphasized the growing demand for stablecoins, which she anticipates will see substantial growth over the next year.
She mentioned that Ripple’s payments business, which doubled in size during the previous year, reflects this trend and positions the company’s payment solutions for continued expansion. RLUSD, she explained, is expected to play a prominent role in the company’s strategy.
Long expressed optimism about the broader cryptocurrency market, predicting significant growth for the industry in 2025. She noted that this expansion is likely to create new opportunities for Ripple and the adoption of financial instruments focused on cryptocurrencies. Specifically, Long suggested that XRP could follow bitcoin and ether as the next candidate for a spot exchange-traded fund (ETF).
Discussing regulatory developments, Long pointed to an evolving regulatory landscape in the United States as a factor that could accelerate the approval process for crypto spot ETFs. She suggested that changes in the U.S. administration might further drive these advancements. Long’s remarks reflect Ripple’s confidence that increased regulatory clarity will unlock further growth opportunities for the cryptocurrency industry.
On the same day as Monica Long’s interview, Ripple announced a major initiative to enhance the utility of its RLUSD stablecoin by integrating Chainlink Price Feeds on the Ethereum blockchain.
Ripple explained that this collaboration is intended to provide secure and reliable pricing data, which it described as critical for supporting RLUSD in decentralized finance (DeFi) applications such as trading, lending, and other financial activities. Ripple emphasized that leveraging Chainlink’s decentralized infrastructure ensures developers have access to high-quality, tamper-proof pricing data needed to manage risks in DeFi protocols.
Ripple stated that RLUSD, which is designed to maintain a 1:1 value with the U.S. dollar, is issued on both the XRP Ledger and Ethereum blockchains. According to Ripple, this dual-chain design makes RLUSD natively compatible with smart contract applications, unlocking new use cases within the onchain economy.
Ripple mentioned that stablecoins like RLUSD have the potential to revolutionize financial transactions by enabling instant, low-cost settlement for local and cross-border payments. However, Ripple acknowledged that the adoption of stablecoins in DeFi depends heavily on access to reliable pricing data, a need the company said is addressed by Chainlink’s infrastructure.
Ripple explained that the decision to integrate Chainlink was based on the service’s proven reliability and decentralized approach to delivering pricing data. The Californian firm noted that Chainlink Price Feeds aggregate information from numerous exchanges and are secured by independent oracle nodes, ensuring accuracy and resistance to manipulation.
Ripple also pointed out that Chainlink’s infrastructure has facilitated over $18 trillion in transaction value, further cementing its reputation as a trusted provider for decentralized markets. Ripple views this partnership as a critical step in scaling RLUSD adoption across institutional and decentralized ecosystems, building trust in the stablecoin’s utility within DeFi.
