Ripple wins full OCC approval for a national trust bank to hold its RLUSD reserves
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted Ripple final approval for a national trust bank that will hold the reserves behind its $2.5 billion RLUSD stablecoin and offer institutional custody.
Ripple has received final approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to operate Ripple National Trust Bank (RNTB), a federally supervised trust bank, CEO Brad Garlinghouse announced on X late Monday, per CoinDesk. It puts one of crypto's larger firms inside the national banking system — though the headline is narrower than it sounds.
RNTB will manage the reserves backing Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin, act as trustee for those reserves, and provide regulated custody for institutional clients. Notably, RLUSD itself will keep being issued by Ripple's New York–regulated unit, Standard Custody & Trust Company — so the token picks up a federal layer of oversight on its reserves without changing its issuer. The approval caps a process Ripple began in July 2025; the OCC granted conditional approval in December 2025 before signing off fully this week, according to CoinDesk.
RLUSD launched in December 2024 and sits at roughly $2.5 billion in market value, which CoinDesk places among the top 50 stablecoins. It is backed by U.S. dollar deposits, U.S. government securities and other cash-like assets, with BNY holding most of the reserves. Ripple uses it in its payments business and as collateral on Ripple Prime.
Key facts
- OCC granted final approval for Ripple National Trust Bank; announced by Garlinghouse on X, late Monday (CoinDesk).
- Timeline: applied July 2025 → conditional approval December 2025 → full approval this week (CoinDesk).
- RNTB's role: manage and act as trustee for RLUSD reserves; offer regulated institutional custody (CoinDesk).
- RLUSD still issued by Standard Custody & Trust Company, Ripple's NY-regulated unit (CoinDesk).
- RLUSD: launched December 2024; ~$2.5B market value; reserves in USD deposits, Treasuries and cash-like assets, mostly held at BNY (CoinDesk).
- Ripple cited the incoming GENIUS Act stablecoin rules as context for continued coordination with regulators (CoinDesk).
The real-world read
Read the charter for what it is: a trust bank that holds reserves and custodies assets, not a deposit-taking bank, and the stablecoin's issuer doesn't change. The most quotable lines — that the charter gives Ripple "an even stronger foundation" to serve institutions "at scale" — come straight from Ripple's own press release, so treat them as the company's framing, not independent assessment.
Worth flagging: this rests on a single secondary report relaying Ripple's own announcement; the OCC's approval order wasn't quoted directly, and specific conditions attached to the charter weren't detailed. The "$2.5 billion" and "top 50" figures are as reported by CoinDesk and not independently confirmed here. There's a genuine substance point too — Garlinghouse has long argued crypto and banks "work better together," and a national charter is that position in practice rather than a reversal of it.
Opinion, and whose
Garlinghouse (Ripple): the charter is a "stronger foundation" for RLUSD and institutional products across payments, custody and capital markets. CoinDesk's read: the approval signals digital assets being pulled further into the regulated traditional financial system. Both are characterizations, not settled fact.
Sources
- CoinDesk (Tier 2, secondary), Oct 27 2026 — sole source for the approval, timeline, RNTB's role and RLUSD figures; itself relays Ripple's X post and press release, which are Ripple's own marketing and are flagged as such above.
This is news reporting, not financial advice.