Three major Turkish exchanges now offer Ripple’s dollar-pegged settlement asset to institutional clients
Ripple announced on June 2, 2026 that its RLUSD stablecoin is now available to institutional clients across three Turkish cryptocurrency platforms: BiLira, Bitexen, and Bitlo. The move targets Turkey, which processed nearly $200 billion in annual crypto transactions and emerged as MENA’s dominant digital-asset economy, according to blockchain data firm Chainalysis.
Turkey ranked as the fifth-largest global market for retail crypto activity in Q1 2026, generating $40 billion in crypto volume despite an 11% contraction in global retail participation during the same period. The country’s crypto ecosystem is driven by speculative trading, robust dollar demand, and macroeconomic pressure from Turkish lira devaluation.
Jack McDonald, Senior Vice President of Stablecoins at Ripple, said RLUSD “has rapidly gained traction in financial use cases, serving as a vital bridge for payments, tokenization, and collateral management.” The stablecoin reached $340.3 million in market capitalization natively issued on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) by the end of Q1 2026, representing a 45% quarter-over-quarter increase from the prior period.
Mustafa Alpay, CEO of Bitlo, framed the integration around Turkish users’ needs. “Turkey crypto users are looking for secure, digital-native means to manage their wealth and hedge against volatility,” Alpay said. “By integrating a regulated, enterprise-grade stablecoin like RLUSD, we’re providing our customers with the highest standard of digital dollars for enterprise needs.”
RLUSD launched globally in late 2024 and has since grown to $1.7 billion in total market capitalization. The three-exchange rollout in Turkey follows the country’s Capital Markets Law amendments in July 2024, which introduced stringent licensing requirements for crypto asset service providers. In March 2026, Turkey’s ruling AK Party proposed comprehensive legislation including a 10% withholding tax on crypto gains for authorized platforms and a 0.03% transaction levy on service providers.
Ripple is also deepening its institutional footprint in Turkey through academic partnerships. Istanbul Technical University joined Ripple’s global University Blockchain Research Initiative, with the partnership funded by RLUSD allocations and including the establishment of an XRPL validator node and financing of graduate fellowships.
The broader XRPL ecosystem showed momentum in real-world asset tokenization. Total market capitalization for real-world assets on XRPL reached $2.25 billion by the end of Q1 2026, surging 124% from the previous quarter.
Reece Merrick, Senior Executive Officer at Ripple, said “the foundations are in place for Türkiye to double down on its position as one of the world’s most dynamic digital asset markets.” The regulatory clarity from Turkey’s Capital Markets Law, combined with RLUSD’s availability on established domestic exchanges, positions the stablecoin as a regulated settlement layer for institutional participants operating in the region.
