Don’t celebrate just yet that the “bank charter is in hand.” The OCC granted final approval for a national trust bank—not a commercial bank that can take deposits and make loans.
October 26, Ripple’s website: The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued final approval for Ripple National Trust Bank (RNTB), following its conditional approval in December 2025. The approved activities are narrowly defined: managing segregated reserves for $RLUSD, serving as trustee for reserve collateral, and providing institutional clients with fiduciary digital asset custody. Issuance remains under the oversight of New York State’s DFS and Standard Custody & Trust Company (SCTC); BNY remains the primary custodian of the reserves. Trust banks do not take deposits or make loans.
CEO Brad Garlinghouse posted in sync, keeping pace ahead of Swell. The official website says: $RLUSD market cap is around $2.5 billion, and monthly third-party attestations are still in place; the product stack is still supported by $RLUSD and $XRP together for payments, custody, and Prime. Peers like Circle are also taking similar federal trust routes, so don’t read this as “Ripple alone getting a bank.”
After screening it, the takeaway is just one sentence: added federal regulatory layers do not mean the product immediately gets a new track. Not investment advice.