AI Agents Prefer Ripple USD Over XRP for Payments
Ripple USD (RLUSD)
Editor:
Eugene Serbin
digitaltoday.co.kr reports that autonomous AI agents on the XRP Ledger are increasingly choosing Ripple USD over the native XRP token for payments. Data from the XRPL AI Hub indicates that regulated stablecoins are now preferred for 24-hour settlement in large volumes. Ripple USD has set an all-time high for direct clearing payments and leads the trend over the past 30 days.
In contrast, trading volume for XRP has stagnated over the past week. This shift aligns with BlackRock’s research on a machine-native economy, which notes that traditional banking struggles with millisecond micropayments. BlackRock stated that the global stablecoin market exceeds $300 billion with annual transaction volumes reaching $11.6 trillion.
They identified this asset class as the basic unit of account for AI, requiring sufficient liquidity for reliable high-frequency payments. Robots need to purchase computing power and pay for API access around the clock, making tokenised GPUs a core raw material. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong observed that the number of AI agents executing transactions is increasing exponentially.
He noted that software requires predictable costs because volatile assets do not fit strict budget algorithms. Even a small price move in XRP can disrupt autonomous financial models, whereas Ripple USD’s dollar peg allows precise cost forecasting. Consequently, cost predictability is becoming more important than speed, shifting the internal economy toward dollar-pegged assets.
How the market reacted
Whalio's own Binance spot order flow for RLUSD, measured when this story was written up on 27 September 2026. Not the outlet's figures.
Whalio’s spot data for RLUSD shows a price of $1.00 with strong buying pressure dominating the recent hour. The 1-hour buy ratio stands at 65.5%, while the 4-hour ratio rises to 84.6%, indicating that buying intensity is building over a slightly longer timeframe compared to the 24-hour average of 74.4%. Positive volume deltas of $172,100 in the last hour and $4.19 million over four hours confirm that buyers are actively absorbing sell-side liquidity. This accumulation results in a cumulative CVD of nearly $12 million over the past day. The market is clearly favoring purchases, with net buying occurring in 12 of the last 24 hours.
The latest daily buy ratio of 39.6% sits at the 19th percentile of the last 267 days, against a median of 52.6% - weaker buying than most days.
Was that an ordinary day?
The same Binance spot measurements for RLUSD, averaged over the days leading up to the story.
This current activity represents a notable deviation from the preceding week’s trading patterns. While the 7-day average buy ratio was 54.6%, today’s reading is 19.7 percentage points higher, signaling a sharp increase in buyer dominance. Spot volume for the day is 0.29 times the weekly average, suggesting that while buying pressure is intense, total participation is lower than usual. The coin experienced net buying on five of the past seven days, with a total volume delta of over $76.7 million recorded over that period. This suggests that today’s price stability amidst high buy ratios is an unusual concentration of demand rather than broad volume expansion.