Ripple has received final approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish Ripple National Trust Bank, a federally supervised national trust bank, the company said on Monday. The decision completes a process that began when the OCC conditionally approved Ripple's application in December 2025, alongside applications from Circle, Paxos, Fidelity Digital Assets and BitGo.
Once open, the bank will manage the segregated reserves backing the Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin, act as collateral trustee of those reserves for the benefit of RLUSD holders, and provide fiduciary digital asset custody services to enterprises.
Dual state and federal supervision
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 arrangement means the stablecoin will sit under both state and federal supervision.
"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 the release. In a post on X, he added: "The revolution isn't happening outside the system. It's happening from within it."
RLUSD's footprint
Launched in December 2024, RLUSD has a market capitalization of about $2.6 billion, according to CoinGecko. Ripple says the stablecoin is used across its payments network and as collateral within its Ripple Prime brokerage. BNY is the stablecoin's primary reserve custodian.
XRP, the cryptocurrency closely associated with Ripple, rose 0.5% over the past 24 hours to $1.29, according to CoinGecko, one of only two top-10 coins by market cap to gain on the day alongside Zcash.
Charter fight continues
The national trust charters the OCC has handed to crypto firms remain contested. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has argued in a letter to Comptroller Jonathan Gould that 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 these charter approvals and continue developing clear supervisory expectations for trust banks."
Earlier this month, the Independent Community Bankers of America sued the OCC in federal court, arguing that the charters have become "a side door into the banking system for crypto firms" that avoid the capital requirements, consolidated supervision and FDIC insurance that bind traditional banks.
Ripple said it will keep working with the OCC, NYDFS and other regulators as the bank begins operations and as the U.S. implements the GENIUS Act's stablecoin framework.
