No stablecoin has ever carried a Moody's investment-grade rating — until today. Moody's gave Ripple's RLUSD an A2 long-term rating and a P-1 short-term rating, the highest short-term mark it gives out, and Ripple says RLUSD is the first stablecoin to get a grade like this.
Key points:
- Moody's handed RLUSD an A2 long-term rating and a P-1 short-term rating, a first for a stablecoin.
- Behind the grade sit mostly short US government paper and cash, kept at BNY, with a 103% coverage target.
- The news lands days after Ripple won final OCC approval for its own national trust bank, which will run RLUSD reserves.
So why did Moody's say yes? The firm pointed to the quality of the reserves, how much cover there is, and how fast holders can get their money back. Most of the reserve sits in US Treasury bills, other short US government assets, and cash, held with BNY, a bank Moody's itself rates Aa1. The reserve is kept apart from Ripple's own money, and Standard Custody & Trust Company, Ripple's New York-regulated trust arm, aims to hold 103% cover — more than the bare minimum for the grade.
Read also: Robinhood Brings Ripple's $2.5B RLUSD to 28.6M Customers — What's Next?
The timing is hard to miss. Earlier this week, Ripple got the final green light from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for Ripple National Trust Bank. That bank can now look after the separate reserves behind RLUSD, act as trustee for holders, and offer custody for digital assets. Put the two wins side by side and the pitch to big firms gets much simpler: a rated coin, run inside a federally watched bank setup.
What does A2 actually mean for a stablecoin?
In plain terms, A2 is Moody's upper-medium grade — low credit risk, not risk-free. P-1 is its top short-term mark, a vote of faith that RLUSD can meet quick redemptions. Moody's also spelled out what could drag the grade down: weaker reserves, thinner cover, or slower redemptions. And the grade rates the dollar claim behind the coin, not XRP itself, so it says nothing straight about where XRP trades next.
My own read is this: the grade opens doors in bank boardrooms, but it does not by itself push XRP up. Watch where big money actually parks cash in the next few months — if RLUSD's $2.5 billion size starts to climb fast, the rating did its job; if it stays flat, this was a nice stamp, not a surge.
Read also: BNY Adds XRP and RLUSD Custody in Ripple Expansion — What's Next?
— BitByLine News Desk
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Sources: The Block, Moody's Ratings