Ripple trust bank wins final OCC approval to hold RLUSD reserves
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted final approval for Ripple National Trust Bank, putting the reserves behind the $2.5 billion RLUSD stablecoin under federal supervision.
Ripple now has a federal banking charter. The Ripple trust bank, formally Ripple National Trust Bank, received final approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Monday, Ripple said, completing a process that began with an application in July 2025.
What happened
The OCC gave conditional approval in December 2025 and signed off fully this week, CoinDesk reported, after CEO Brad Garlinghouse announced the news on X late Monday. The approved activities are specific: managing the segregated reserves that back Ripple USD (RLUSD), acting as collateral trustee for those reserves on behalf of holders, and offering fiduciary custody of digital assets to institutional clients.
RLUSD itself will still be issued by Standard Custody & Trust Company, Ripple's limited purpose trust company, which answers to New York's financial regulator, NYDFS. The result is a two-layer setup in which a state regulator oversees the issuer and a federal regulator oversees the bank that safeguards the reserves.
"For years, we've said crypto and banks work better together. Final approval for Ripple National Trust Bank is what that looks like in practice," Garlinghouse said in the company's statement.
Why it matters
RLUSD launched in December 2024 and has grown to roughly $2.5 billion in market value, which CoinDesk said ranks it in the top 50 stablecoins globally. Its reserves consist of U.S. dollar deposits, government securities and other cash equivalents, with BNY as primary reserve custodian, and Ripple publishes monthly third-party attestations. The token already serves as collateral on Ripple Prime and in payment flows, including the Standard Chartered custody setup in Dubai and the DriveWealth settlement partnership.
A national trust charter does not let Ripple take deposits or make loans, Crypto Briefing noted. Its value is regulatory credibility: large institutions that want a federally supervised custodian can now use the Ripple trust bank directly, and the approval arrives as U.S. agencies implement the GENIUS Act stablecoin regime. Ripple said it will keep working with the OCC and New York regulators as the bank starts operating. Crypto Briefing added that the fiduciary-only scope means growth will depend on demand for custody and reserve management rather than on lending.
The charter also strengthens Ripple's pitch against bigger stablecoin rivals. Issuers that can point to federal oversight of reserves may find it easier to win bank and asset-manager clients that cannot hold tokens from lightly supervised entities.
What's next
Next comes the operational launch, for which Ripple has not given a date. Ripple also uses XRP to facilitate cross-border payments, CoinDesk noted, but the new bank's mandate is tied to RLUSD reserves and custody, not the token. Markets will watch whether RLUSD supply accelerates once the Ripple trust bank is live and whether other crypto firms with pending charter applications follow. Details are in Ripple's announcement.
This article is for information only and is not investment advice.