Ask most people how a stablecoin "stays at a dollar" and the answer is usually some version of "because the issuer says so." But a promise is not a mechanism. A price does not hold because someone declares it should; it holds because there is a force that pushes it back whenever it drifts. For RUSD, that force is arbitrage — and understanding it is the key to understanding why the peg is credible.

Two markets, two roles

RUSD operates across two distinct markets, and they do different jobs.

The primary market is where RUSD is created and destroyed. Here, onboarded, KYB-verified institutional counterparties transact directly with the issuer: they wire dollars and receive newly minted RUSD one-for-one, or they return RUSD and receive dollars one-for-one, at par. This market is restricted — access requires completing know-your-business and anti-money-laundering checks — and it is where the reserve actually connects to the token.

The secondary market is where everyone else transacts. Eligible holders buy and sell RUSD on decentralised and centralised venues at whatever price the market sets. The issuer is not a party to these trades. This is the market retail participants use, and its price can, in principle, drift away from one dollar based on supply and demand.

The peg is the bridge between these two — and arbitrage is what builds it.

The arbitrage loop

Suppose RUSD trades at $0.99 on the secondary market. An institution with primary-market access can buy RUSD there for $0.99 and redeem it with the issuer for a full $1.00, capturing a one-cent spread per token. That buying pressure on the secondary market pushes the price back up toward a dollar. The more it drifts below par, the larger the profit, and the harder arbitrageurs push it back.

The reverse works symmetrically. If RUSD trades at $1.01, an institution can mint fresh RUSD from the issuer at $1.00 and sell it on the secondary market for $1.01, again pocketing the difference. That selling pressure drives the price back down toward par.

This loop runs in both directions, continuously, driven by ordinary profit-seeking. No one has to be trusted to "defend" the peg out of goodwill. It holds because deviating from a dollar creates a risk-free profit for anyone with primary-market access, and the act of capturing that profit is exactly what closes the gap.

Why the primary market has to exist

This is why RUSD retains an institutional mint-and-redeem channel rather than relying on the secondary market alone. A stablecoin that only ever sells tokens into a liquidity pool, with no way to redeem them at par with the issuer, has no arbitrage anchor. Its price is left to float on secondary supply and demand, and it tends to settle persistently below a dollar — because nothing exists to pull it back. Several tokens have demonstrated exactly this outcome. The redemption channel is not a convenience feature; it is the engine of the peg.

What this means for holders

For retail holders, the practical takeaway is reassuring: you do not need primary-market access yourself for the peg to protect you. The institutions doing the arbitrage are, in effect, maintaining the price on everyone's behalf, because it is profitable for them to do so. Your ability to buy and sell RUSD near a dollar on the secondary market is a byproduct of their activity.

It also clarifies what the peg depends on. It is not the issuer's willpower — it is the combination of a credible, fully funded redemption channel and open arbitrage. As long as institutions can reliably redeem RUSD for real dollars at par, the incentive to close any gap remains intact. That is why the strength of the peg ultimately traces back to the reserve: arbitrage only works if the dollars are actually there to be redeemed. The mechanism and the backing are two halves of the same guarantee.