Ripple Gets Final OCC Approval for National Trust Bank as RLUSD Reaches $2.58B

Ripple’s national trust bank has received final approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), giving the company a federally supervised structure for reserve management, collateral trusteeship and institutional digital asset custody. The change adds a national layer to RLUSD’s existing state-level framework, while leaving the stablecoin’s issuance with Standard Custody & Trust Company.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse shared the news in an X post late Monday. He described the development as an example of crypto firms and banks working together, with accountability and federal supervision. The OCC approved Ripple National Trust Bank (RNTB), completing a process that began in July 2025, when Ripple started pursuing a national charter. The OCC gave the application conditional approval in December of that year before granting final approval.

What the charter changes for RLUSD

RNTB is authorized to manage reserves backing RLUSD, act as collateral trustee for stablecoin holders and provide digital asset custody to institutional clients. Those activities place reserve administration and custody within a federally supervised bank structure. For institutions assessing stablecoin arrangements, the practical change is an additional regulated entity and supervisory framework around some of the services supporting RLUSD.

Issuance remains with Standard Custody & Trust Company, Ripple’s limited-purpose trust company regulated by the New York Department of Financial Services. The new charter therefore adds federal supervision alongside the existing state framework; it does not transfer the issuer role to RNTB. That distinction matters because reserve management, custody and issuance are separate functions, even when they support the same stablecoin.

RLUSD launched in December 2024 and has reached a market capitalization of roughly $2.58 billion, according to Ripple. The company says the stablecoin is used across its payments infrastructure and as collateral within Ripple Prime. Its reserve and custody arrangements will matter to users and institutions relying on RLUSD, while the separation between issuer and national trust bank makes it important to track which entity handles each function.

A bank charter can provide a defined supervisory structure for a company’s financial activities, but it does not by itself establish how widely institutions will use those services. Adoption will depend on whether clients choose RNTB for custody or collateral arrangements, how Ripple connects those services to its payments products, and how RLUSD’s issuer and reserve processes operate in practice.

RLUSD’s growth and XRP’s separate role

The charter is directly relevant to RLUSD and Ripple’s institutional services. Any effect on XRP is less immediate. In early trading on October 27, XRP was around $1.30, up 1.2% over the previous 24 hours. That modest move offers no clear evidence that the bank approval had changed demand for the token.

Ripple CTO Emeritus David Schwartz has argued that broader use of the network for financial applications could support demand for XRP. In a recent exchange on X, he pointed to the token’s role as an asset that accounts can accept without relying on a counterparty, and to its use for transaction fees on the ledger. Those functions connect XRP to network activity, but they do not make every expansion of Ripple’s business an automatic source of token demand.

RLUSD can support payments and collateral use without requiring XRP to serve as the asset in every transaction. XRP could see greater use if financial institutions adopt it as a bridge asset for international settlements, but that outcome depends on how those institutions choose to move value. The charter may make Ripple’s services more accessible to some institutional clients; whether that brings additional activity to XRP remains an open question.

The clearest near-term change is operational: RNTB has final OCC approval to perform specified trust bank activities, while Standard Custody continues issuing RLUSD. The next indicators to watch are how Ripple puts the bank’s approved functions into practice, whether institutions use those services, and whether growth in RLUSD activity is accompanied by measurable use of XRP.