Standard Chartered, a UK-based banking group, has launched institutional custody for Ripple USD (RLUSD), Ripple’s US dollar stablecoin, on the XRP Ledger. The service is available through the bank’s branch in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), which is regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority. Alongside the launch, Standard Chartered is working with Ripple and LMAX Group to enable RLUSD as eligible collateral for certain LMAX products.
Collateral mirroring with LMAX Group
The planned integration would use Standard Chartered’s collateral mirroring model, under which the value of eligible RLUSD held in the bank’s custody is mirrored to LMAX Group without the underlying assets being transferred directly to the trading venue. The arrangement remains subject to final documentation, testing, regulatory requirements, and internal approvals, and no launch date has been set. According to Standard Chartered, the model is expected to give institutional clients more flexibility in how they hold and trade crypto assets.
Waqar Chaudry, Global Head of Digital Assets at Standard Chartered, said institutional clients want to participate in digital asset markets without compromising on how their assets are safeguarded or how risk is managed, and that the ecosystem needs to make it easier to hold assets securely, access liquidity, and deploy collateral. Jack McDonald, SVP of Stablecoins at Ripple, said RLUSD was built for this type of institutional use case, adding that combining RLUSD on the XRP Ledger with Standard Chartered’s custody and LMAX Group’s trading infrastructure gives institutions a way to use stablecoins across global markets.
Expanding custody footprint
The RLUSD launch is part of a wider expansion of Standard Chartered’s institutional crypto custody operations. In early October 2026, the bank’s Singapore unit announced plans to launch institutional crypto custody services by the end of the year, adding to its existing custody presence in the UAE, Luxembourg, and Hong Kong.
The bank has also been restructuring its relationship with Zodia Custody, the institutional custodian it incubated with Northern Trust in 2020. In April 2026, Standard Chartered was reportedly considering folding parts of Zodia into its corporate bank division, and in May 2026 the bank said its non-binding offer had been accepted. Zodia, which has operated in Singapore since September 2023 and later expanded into Hong Kong, secured a payment institution licence in Luxembourg in June 2026, allowing it to provide regulated stablecoin custody and transfer services across the EU.
