On Oct. 27, 2026, Ripple secured final approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to launch Ripple National Trust Bank, creating a federally supervised platform for its dollar-backed stablecoin RLUSD and enterprise digital asset custody services. CEO Brad Garlinghouse announced the approval on X, saying: “We’ve always said crypto and banks work better together — this is what that looks like. Real innovation, real accountability, federal oversight.”
The final authorization arrives less than a year after Ripple obtained conditional approval on Dec. 12, 2025, and follows its initial banking license application filed in July 2025. Unlike a full-service commercial bank, a national trust bank charter does not permit deposit-taking or lending. Ripple National Trust Bank is authorized to manage the segregated reserves backing RLUSD, act as collateral trustee for those reserves, and provide fiduciary digital asset custody services to enterprises.
RLUSD will continue to be issued by Standard Custody & Trust Company, Ripple’s New York Department of Financial Services-regulated limited purpose trust company. Ripple said BNY remains the primary reserve custodian, while the new structure adds federal OCC supervision to existing state-level oversight. The stablecoin, launched in December 2024, has reached a roughly $2.5 billion market capitalization and is used across Ripple’s payment infrastructure and as collateral within Ripple Prime.
The Ripple approval is part of a broader wave of OCC federal trust charters for crypto firms. Circle received final OCC approval in July 2026, BitGo obtained its green light in December 2025, and Coinbase, Crypto.com and World Liberty Financial have received conditional approvals this year. The trend has drawn criticism from Senator Elizabeth Warren, who argued the charters violate the National Bank Act and pose systemic risks, while industry group The Digital Chamber said Warren mischaracterized the issue and noted that trust charters are limited to fiduciary activities and voluntarily subject firms to federal supervision.
Ripple’s final approval also arrives as the OCC implements final rules tied to the GENIUS Act for payment stablecoins, which take effect in January 2027. The company can now shift from charter preparation to operating a federally supervised digital-asset trust bank focused on institutional custody and stablecoin services.
