Key Takeaways:
- Ripple received final OCC authorization for its national trust bank.
- The bank will back up both reserves (RLUSD) and digital asset custody.
- RLUSD’s market value has increased to approximately $2.5 billion.
Ripple has cleared a major U.S. regulatory hurdle, securing final approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to launch Ripple National Trust Bank.
Under the latest move, Ripple will have a federally-supervised company to operate portions of the stablecoin and custody services, while issuance of its stable coin remains in Ripple’s existing New York state-licensed trust company.
Ripple National Trust Bank Gets Final Federal Approval
According to Ripple, the OCC granted final approval for Ripple National Trust Bank (RNTB), after receiving preliminary conditional approval in December 2025.
The bank’s authorized activities include servicing segregated reserves of Ripple USD, as a collateral trustee, and as a fiduciary asset custodian for digital assets.
The original OCC approval already included provisions for a national trust bank to provide collateral trustee services and for cryptocurrency custodial services. The same limited-purpose trust company, Standard Custody & Trust Company (SCTC) pursuant to license by the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), will continue to be the issuer of RLUSD.
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RLUSD Keeps State Oversight While Adding a Federal Layer
That setup provides Ripple with two layers of regulation on its stablecoin system. Custody remains with Standard, but OCC supervision of custody and reserve functions added by Ripple National Trust Bank. Ripple reports that the BNY remains RLUSD’s primary reserve custodian.
The stablecoin is collateralized by a combination of U.S. dollar deposits and government securities and other cash-equivalent assets, with reserves and circulating supply attested to third-party monthly.
$2.5B RLUSD Gets a Bigger Institutional Role
Since its launch in December 2024, Ripple has made it to a market cap of $2.5 billion, said RLUSD.
The stablecoin has already hit the Ripple payments system, and is collateralized in Ripple Prime. With the new trust bank, Ripple now has a regulated path for it to explore some of its institutional applications like settlement, custody, and treasury.
Ripple’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, said the approval was evidence that crypto can thrive in the traditional financial system instead of on its own outside it. Over the past few years, the firm has made a recurring theme of its play with the introduction of regulated infrastructure, from payments and stablecoins to custody and capital markets.
Big news heading into @RippleSwell: the @USOCC has granted final approval for Ripple National Trust Bank.
This gives Ripple a federally supervised platform to support $RLUSD and provide digital asset custody to enterprises.
We’ve always said crypto and banks work better together — this is what that looks like. Real innovation, real accountability, federal oversight.
The revolution isn’t happening outside the system. It’s happening from within it.
— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) October 26, 2026
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OCC Charter Expands Ripple’s Crypto Banking Footprint
The national trust bank is a narrow bank as compared to a commercial bank. It tends to concentrate on the custody, fiduciary and asset management operations, as opposed to traditional deposit and lending activities.
The OCC has increased its pandemic-era flexibility on digital-asset companies establishing federal charters. In December 2025, Ripple was conditionally approved along with a number of other applicants for crypto-focused trust banks.
The broader regulatory framework is also changing. In October 2026, the OCC finalized rules that implement portions of the GENIUS Act for payment stablecoins, which take effect in January 2027.
As a result of getting the thumbs up, Ripple can now shift its focus from Charter preparation to running a federally supervised digital-centric bank that will be trust banks for institutional custody and stablecoins.
