Ripple has been granted final approval by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish Ripple National Trust Bank, according to Bloomberg. The decision finalises the conditional approval the bank received in December 2025 and marks the latest step in the company’s expansion into traditional finance.
Once operational, the bank will be authorised to manage the reserves backing Ripple USD (RLUSD), the company’s stablecoin, and to provide fiduciary custody services for digital assets. A company official described the approval as a practical demonstration of Ripple’s long-held position that crypto and banking work better together. The official added that it gives the firm a federally supervised platform to support RLUSD and offer digital asset custody to enterprises.
Federal oversight alongside state regulation
The charter adds federal supervision to Ripple’s stablecoin operations, although issuance will stay where it is. RLUSD will continue to be issued by Standard Custody & Trust Company, Ripple’s New York-regulated trust company. Under this structure, the federally chartered bank is authorised to manage the token’s reserves, while the state-regulated entity remains the issuer.
The national trust bank model also has limits. Most national trust banks do not accept deposits or extend loans, and they are not covered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Ripple said it will work with the OCC, the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), and other regulators as the bank prepares to begin operations.
RLUSD launched in December 2024, and it is used across Ripple’s payments infrastructure and as collateral within Ripple Prime, the company’s brokerage platform. BNY acts as the stablecoin’s primary reserve custodian. According to CoinGecko data, the market value of RLUSD tokens in circulation has more than doubled since the start of 2026, reaching USD 2.6 billion.
Regulatory and industry context
Ripple was one of five crypto firms that received preliminary OCC approval for national trust bank charter applications in December 2025. The others included Circle Internet Group, BitGo, Fidelity’s digital assets arm, and Paxos.
The final approval also follows the OCC’s publication of final rules implementing the GENIUS Act in October 2026. The GENIUS Act is the US legislation governing stablecoins and was signed into law in 2025. Together, these developments set out a clearer federal framework for stablecoin activity in the US.
The approval reflects a wider effort among crypto firms to deepen ties with traditional financial institutions and to expand into payments, custody, and tokenised financial assets. For Ripple, the charter combines federal oversight of reserve management and custody with its existing state-regulated issuance arrangement.
