Ripple wins final OCC approval for its own national trust bank, to hold RLUSD reserves

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has granted final approval for Ripple National Trust Bank, Ripple announced Monday, according to CoinDesk and Cointelegraph. The OCC gave conditional approval in December 2025, and Ripple first applied in July 2025.

What the bank can and cannot do

Per Ripple's announcement as reported by Cointelegraph, the trust bank can manage the reserves behind Ripple USD (RLUSD), act as collateral trustee for RLUSD holders and provide digital-asset custody. RLUSD itself will still be issued by Standard Custody & Trust Company, Ripple's limited-purpose trust company regulated by the New York Department of Financial Services.

A national trust bank is not a regular bank. Citing the OCC, Cointelegraph notes that most do not take deposits or make loans and do not carry FDIC insurance. So holders of RLUSD or customers' crypto do not get deposit insurance from this charter. What changes is who supervises the people holding the reserves: a federal banking regulator instead of only a state one.

The number behind the number

RLUSD launched in December 2024 and is now worth about $2.5 billion, CoinDesk reports, backed by dollar deposits, U.S. government securities and other cash-like assets. We have not compared that with other stablecoins this run. What the charter adds is an option for institutions that need federally supervised custody.

Ripple is not first. Circle won final OCC approval in July, per Cointelegraph. Coinbase holds conditional approval from April, and Crypto.com and Stripe-owned Bridge from February. Cointelegraph also points to a pending banks' lawsuit against the OCC over these charters, so the regulatory fight is not over.

What it is not

This is a stablecoin and custody story. Nothing in the reports ties the charter to XRP, the separate token, and we have not seen evidence that it changes XRP's role. For earlier context on Ripple's push into regulated finance, see our look at the Cross River tie-up and what it does not say.

For a business that pays suppliers abroad in stablecoins, the practical question is not the charter but redemption terms and who holds the reserves; the approval answers the second, not the first.

Sources: CoinDesk; Cointelegraph; Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Information, not investment advice.