Key takeaways
- The OCC gave final approval to Ripple National Trust Bank, which CEO Brad Garlinghouse announced on X on October 26, 2026.
- The trust bank will manage and act as trustee for RLUSD reserves and offer regulated custody, but national trust charters do not allow taking deposits or making loans.
- Ripple applied in July 2025 and won conditional approval in December 2025 alongside Circle, while BitGo, Paxos and Fidelity Digital Assets were cleared to convert state charters.
In this story 5 sections
Fifteen months after it first asked, Ripple has a federal bank charter. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency gave final approval to Ripple National Trust Bank, CEO Brad Garlinghouse announced on X late Monday, October 26, according to CoinDesk. The trust bank will manage and act as trustee for the reserves behind RLUSD, Ripple's dollar stablecoin, and will offer regulated custody to large companies that hold digital assets.
The approval did not arrive in one step. It followed a stablecoin law, a wave of conditional charters and pushback from traditional banks. Here is how the pieces fit together.
Ripple's road to a national charter, date by date
- December 2024: Ripple launches RLUSD, a stablecoin backed by US dollar deposits, US government securities and other cash equivalents. CoinDesk reports that BNY holds most of the reserves.
- July 2025: The GENIUS Act, the first federal rulebook for payment stablecoins, becomes law. The same month, Ripple applies to the OCC for a national trust bank license, according to CoinDesk.
- December 12, 2025: The OCC grants conditional approval to Ripple and Circle for new national trust bank charters, Reuters reported at the time. BitGo, Paxos and Fidelity Digital Assets receive approval to convert their state trust charters into national ones. Garlinghouse calls the conditional nod "a massive step forward" in Ripple's press release.
- December 2025: Banking groups object. The Bank Policy Institute says the conditional approvals "leave many questions unanswered," per the same Reuters report. Comptroller Jonathan Gould argues that new federal entrants benefit consumers and the economy.
- October 26, 2026: The OCC signs off for good. "Final approval for Ripple National Trust Bank is what that looks like in practice," Garlinghouse says in the company's release, adding that Ripple has spent over a decade building regulated infrastructure "that institutions can actually use at scale."
What Ripple National Trust Bank is allowed to do
A national trust charter is narrower than a full banking license. Based on the reporting around last year's conditional approvals, these charters let firms hold and safeguard customer assets and move payments, but they do not permit taking cash deposits or making loans. So Ripple is not becoming a place to open a checking account.
What changes is supervision. RLUSD itself will still be issued by Standard Custody & Trust Company, Ripple's New York regulated unit. The reserves, though, will now sit with a federally chartered trustee. That gives RLUSD two layers of oversight: the New York Department of Financial Services at the state level and the OCC at the federal level. CoinDesk puts RLUSD's market value at about $2.5 billion, which places it among the top 50 stablecoins in the world. Ripple uses it in its payments business and as collateral on Ripple Prime, its prime brokerage arm.
The custody piece matters for corporate clients. Companies that use crypto for payments, trading or treasury work can now hand their assets to a federally supervised trust bank run by Ripple instead of a state trust company. We looked at how Ripple has been building RLUSD into bank settlement in our piece on Ripple's ARF liquidity network.
Where Ripple stands among crypto trust banks
When the OCC handed out conditional approvals in December 2025, Anchorage Digital was the only crypto firm holding a national trust charter, according to Reuters. The regulator supervised about 60 national trust banks in total at that time. Ripple now moves from the conditional group into the operating one.
The timing lines up with the rest of Washington's stablecoin push. The OCC has already finalized its rules under the stablecoin law, as we covered in our report on the GENIUS Act final rule. On Monday, CoinDesk also reported that the OCC is calling on community banks to enter the stablecoin payments market. Large incumbents are moving too: HSBC launched its RedCoin stablecoin, and Deutsche Bank prepared its own crypto custody service.
XRP holders should not expect a direct payout
The charter is about RLUSD and custody, not XRP. Markets seemed to agree. CoinDesk's ticker showed XRP near $1.32 on Tuesday morning, up about 1.6%, and a separate CoinDesk headline said the bank win failed to bolster the token. A trust bank that safeguards dollar reserves does not create new demand for XRP on its own.
The next stretch for Ripple National Trust Bank
Ripple says it will keep working with the OCC, New York regulators and others as the bank begins operating, including as the federal stablecoin rules take effect. The open questions are practical ones: how quickly the reserves move under the new trustee, and which corporate clients sign up for custody first. For the latest on crypto rules and markets, follow our crypto coverage.
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