Ripple’s EU License Win Raises a Hard Question For XRP

In a YouTube video focused on Ripple’s European expansion, Fire Hustle’s show host Summer argues that the company’s newly obtained Luxembourg crypto-asset service provider license may be far more consequential for Ripple’s payments business than for XRP itself.

The distinction matters: Ripple can now offer compliant services across the European Economic Area, but the video contends that banks may increasingly choose RLUSD over XRP for settlement.

Ripple’s authorization, combined with the electronic-money license it received in February, gives the company passporting rights across 30 EEA countries, according to Fire Hustle.

The timing is notable because Binance reportedly withdrew a European licensing application in Greece in late June and halted new services in several EU markets.

A Smaller Field For Ripple, But No Automatic XRP Demand

Summer says only roughly 210 to 240 firms have received full regulatory approvals out of more than 1,000 applicants. That could leave Ripple competing in a less crowded market for institutional crypto-payment services, particularly given its claimed record of processing more than $100 billion in payments across over 60 countries.

For XRP holders, however, the central caveat is simple: “the license belongs to the company, not the token itself.” Ripple’s infrastructure may give banks access to XRP as a bridge currency for cross-border conversions, but the approval does not require them to use it.

XRP was trading with a market capitalization of roughly $67 billion to $70 billion in the period discussed, while futures open interest had recovered to around $2.4 billion to $2.6 billion, still below June levels. The token reportedly showed little immediate reaction to the European licensing news.

RLUSD Growth Could Sharpen The Token’s Utility Debate

The YouTube video frames Ripple’s dollar-pegged RLUSD stablecoin as XRP’s main strategic complication. Rather than buying volatile XRP to bridge a Canadian-dollar payment into Mexican pesos, a bank could send RLUSD and convert it into local currency at the destination.

RLUSD transactions on the XRP Ledger still consume XRP for fees, but those charges begin at 10 drops, or 0.00001 XRP, and are burned. Summer argues that even large settlement volumes would therefore have a limited effect on the supply of an asset valued in the tens of billions of dollars.

RLUSD’s reported supply has risen from about $132 million a year earlier to between $1.5 billion and $1.8 billion, with the stablecoin now accounting for most stablecoin balances on the XRP Ledger. At the same time, Ripple continues releasing XRP from escrow, with about 37 billion tokens still locked, according to the video.

Right now, the relevant signal may not be another Ripple partnership or license announcement. It is whether European institutions adopt XRP for foreign-exchange liquidity, or mainly use RLUSD inside Ripple’s regulated network.

If stablecoin balances keep expanding while XRP demand remains muted, the company’s regulatory progress may strengthen Ripple without materially changing the token’s economics.

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