Ripple Wins Final OCC Approval for National RLUSD Trust Bank

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted Ripple final approval on Oct. 26, 2026, Ripple said Monday. The authorization lets Ripple establish Ripple National Trust Bank, a federally supervised national trust bank, to manage RLUSD's segregated reserves. CoinGecko put the stablecoin's market capitalization at about $2.6 billion.

The decision converts the conditional approval Ripple received in December 2025 into final authority. The OCC granted those conditional approvals alongside applications from Circle, Paxos, Fidelity Digital Assets and BitGo.

What changes under the final OCC charter?

Once open, Ripple National Trust Bank will manage the segregated reserves backing RLUSD, serve as collateral trustee for the benefit of RLUSD holders and provide fiduciary digital-asset custody services to enterprises. The charter gives Ripple a federally supervised platform for stablecoin reserve administration and institutional custody.

RLUSD will continue to be issued by Standard Custody & Trust Company, Ripple's limited purpose trust company regulated by the New York Department of Financial Services. The issuer's NYDFS status and the trust bank's OCC status place RLUSD under both state and federal supervision.

Operationally, Standard Custody retains issuance responsibility, BNY serves as primary reserve custodian, and the new bank manages the segregated reserve pool and collateral trustee role.

RLUSD launched in December 2024. Ripple says the stablecoin is used across its payments network and as collateral within the Ripple Prime brokerage, extending the token's role from payment settlement into secured financing.

"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," Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said in Monday's release. In a separate Oct. 26 post, he described the development as a revolution happening within the financial system rather than outside it.

CoinGecko put XRP at $1.29 after a 0.5% gain over the previous 24 hours. The Ripple-associated cryptocurrency was one of only two top-10 coins by market capitalization to advance that day, alongside Zcash.

Why are crypto bank charters under challenge?

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) wrote to Comptroller Jonathan Gould, arguing that OCC approvals for firms including Coinbase and Ripple violated the National Bank Act. "These companies are effectively crypto banks that want to evade the fundamental safeguards and obligations that come with being a bank," she wrote.

The Digital Chamber, a crypto industry trade group, urged the OCC to defend the charter approvals and continue developing clear supervisory expectations for trust banks.

Earlier in October 2026, the Independent Community Bankers of America sued the OCC in federal court. In its complaint, the community-banking group described the charters as a side door into the banking system for crypto firms that avoid the capital requirements, consolidated supervision and FDIC insurance applicable to traditional banks.

Ripple said it will keep working with the OCC, NYDFS and other regulators as the bank begins operations and as the United States implements the GENIUS Act's stablecoin framework. The next checkpoint is operational: Ripple National Trust Bank must open under OCC supervision as that framework takes effect, while Standard Custody remains under NYDFS oversight and the ICBA lawsuit tests the charter structure in federal court. Ripple announced no opening deadline.