The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has issued a new ruling that moves Ripple significantly closer to becoming a national trust bank. The regulation, which revises chartering rules, now allows regulated banks to manage non-fiduciary activities. Ripple has received conditional approval from the OCC to establish the Ripple National Trust Bank, a move that brings the company closer to operating within the formal U.S. banking system and expanding its stablecoin and payments services.
This development coincides with a public discussion about XRP's role in bank adoption. A crypto investor raised concerns that Ripple's large holdings of 34 billion XRP tokens could deter banks from adopting the asset, as it would make Ripple immensely valuable. Ripple CTO David Schwartz dismissed the concern, arguing that banks do not reject profitable infrastructure simply because a vendor also benefits.
The reality on the ground shows a complex picture for XRP adoption. Banks that have adopted Ripple's infrastructure in early 2026, including Deutsche Bank and Société Générale, have been settling transactions in Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin and fiat, not XRP. Analysts note that at least 30 of the 50+ banks inside SWIFT's new retail payments framework have ties to Ripple, but most use RippleNet for messaging only, without XRP touching the payment flow. Ripple Treasury processed $13 trillion in payments last year, with none going through crypto rails.
Across the broader RippleNet, approximately 40% of connected banks use the On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) service, which requires XRP as a bridge asset. The remaining 60% use rails that do not involve the token. The pending CLARITY Act in the U.S., which could classify XRP as a digital commodity, is seen as a key variable that could provide a clearer compliance pathway for banks to adopt ODL at scale.
Following the OCC rule finalization, Ripple's national trust bank charter took effect on April 1. The company subsequently launched Digital Asset Accounts and Unified Treasury, a platform that allows corporate CFOs to manage XRP and RLUSD alongside fiat currencies in a single interface for the first time. At the time of reporting, XRP was trading at $1.30, down 3.86% over 24 hours, with a market capitalization of $79.86 billion.
