Ripple’s RLUSD attracts bids for 800 XRP. But why?

Ripple’s upcoming RLUSD stablecoin is attracting bids of up to 836 XRP on onchain markets ahead of Tuesday’s release, a sign of the frenzy among enthusiasts who want to be the first to hold the token.

Those bids ranged from 500 XRP to 836 XRP by early morning Asian time on Tuesday, according to CoinDesk’s Xaman app. Each XRP changes hands for $2.50. data shows.

“There’s actually someone willing to pay $1,200/RLUSD for a tiny fraction of one RLUSD.” Ripple Labs CTO David Schwartz said in a statement on Monday. “Tools show you the highest price someone is willing to pay, no matter how small. Maybe someone wants the “honor” of buying the first bit of RLUSD on the DEX.

“But rest assured, once the supply stabilizes, the price will be closer to $1. If not, something is seriously wrong,” Schwartz added.

Speculators trade small quantities of new tokens or NFTs at high prices to capitalize on the novelty of early access or holding the first batch.

As such, RLUSD may not have the liquidity to effectively maintain its peg in the first few hours after going live, meaning there may be price differences from the assumed $1 peg. However, each token is only redeemable for one dollar and cannot remain in the wallet for long.

RLUSD will go live on XRP Ledger (XRP) on Tuesday This was reported by CoinDeskWith initial listings on several exchanges and crypto platforms including Uphold, MoonPay, Archax and CoinMENA.