Ripple’s Ripple USD (RLUSD) is getting a big boost as the blockchain payments firm has teamed up with the decentralized oracle network Chainlink to bring the stablecoin to decentralized finance (DeFi). Chainlink’s partnership with Ripple would enable decentralized apps to access its important price feeds, expanding the use of RLUSD for trading, lending, and other financial activities. With Ripple-promoted XRP now trading above $2, the crypto community speculates whether the crypto asset can push past the next resistance range between $2.48 and $2.60 and potentially surpass its current $3.40 all-time high price. Ripple Aims To Boost RLUSD’s Adoption And Utility In DeFi Markets Ripple announced Tuesday that it had adopted Chainlink’s battle-tested oracle network to enhance its U.S. dollar stablecoin’s utility across decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. According to the announcement, the partnership will support low-cost transactions and DeFi use cases for RLUSD. The move could position the enterprise-grade stablecoin to compete in the fast-rising institutional DeFi industry, where reliable price feeds and robust infrastructure are essential for large-scale adoption. Decentralized finance apps usually require high-quality, tamper-proof pricing information to manage the risks of using stablecoins. Chainlink’s infrastructure, which has facilitated over $18 trillion in transaction value across institutional markets, narrows this gap. Chainlink’s service sources price data from hundreds of digital asset exchanges, weighted by volume and screened to reduce risks of manipulation or downtime. What The Chainlink Standard Means For Ripple’s RLUSD Rolled out amid a strong rally in XRP prices last month, RLUSD operates on both the Ethereum blockchain and XRPL and is designed to maintain a 1:1 parity with the U.S. dollar. “We’re thrilled to be working with Ripple on accelerating the adoption of their recently launched RLUSD stablecoin through the adoption of the Chainlink standard for verifiable data,” Johann Eid, Chief Business Officer at Chainlink Labs, said in a statement. Eid added that stablecoin adoption will continue “to accelerate in the coming years”, and that “having access to critical on-chain data” would speed up this process. “By leveraging the Chainlink standard, we bring trusted data on-chain, further strengthening RLUSD’s utility across both institutional and decentralized applications,” posited Jack McDonald, SVP, Stablecoin at Ripple. According to CoinGecko data, the USD-backed stablecoin has reached a market cap of roughly $72.4 million. RLUSD is currently available on exchanges including Uphold, Bitso, MoonPay, Archax, and CoinMENA. XRP Technical Analysis And Forecast As of writing this, XRP was changing hands at $2.29, a 5.6% drop on the day amid a market-wide correction. Despite the pullback after hitting a local high of $2.46 on Jan. 7, analysts are offering a more hopeful outlook. Legendary chart expert Peter Brandt speculates that XRP’s market cap could rise to $500 billion, representing a roughly 265% price jump or a price target of $6.40 per token. At the crux of Brandt’s bullish prediction is a half-mast flag. This pattern often emerges as a consolidation phase in the middle of an explosive rally, possibly leading to either a bullish continuation or a correction. Brandt reckons that XRP’s market cap could rocket to $500 billion if the flag concludes to the upside. The trader, however, cautioned: “This flag in $XRP needs to rock and roll soon, otherwise it will likely morph into something else TBD.”
