HISTORIC: RIPPLE IS NOW A BANK IN THE U.S.
Ripple has just received FINAL authorization from the OCC to operate its own bank.
The Ripple National Trust Bank (RNTB) has been officially approved. And this changes everything for RLUSD and XRP.
What was approved?
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the agency that regulates national banks in the U.S., granted final approval on Monday (10/27).
The process was:
• Initial application: July 2025 • Conditional approval: December 2025 • Final approval: October 2026
What will this bank do?
Note: This is NOT a commercial bank like Itaú or Bradesco.
A national trust bank is a federal institution designed to hold and manage assets on behalf of clients. Most don’t accept deposits or make loans, and they aren’t FDIC-insured.
RNTB will have 3 main functions:
1. Manage RLUSD reserves: Administer the reserves backing Ripple USD 2. Act as trustee: Hold the collateral for the benefit of RLUSD holders 3. Institutional custody: Provide regulated digital asset custody for companies and institutions
RLUSD issuance will remain with Standard Custody & Trust Company, a Ripple company regulated by the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). The stablecoin now has dual oversight: state (NY) + federal (OCC).
“We’ve always said that crypto and banks work better together — this is what that looks like. Real innovation, real responsibility, federal oversight,” Brad Garlinghouse said on X.
Why is this HUGE for RLUSD?
RLUSD launched in December 2024 and already has a market cap of around US$2.5 billion, putting it among the world’s top 50 stablecoins.
It’s backed by dollar deposits, U.S. government securities, and other cash equivalents. Most of the reserves are held in custody by BNY Mellon.
With its own bank, Ripple is creating a federally supervised platform to give RLUSD even more legitimacy and security. This is exactly what institutions wanted to use the stablecoin for payments, trading, and treasury management.
And Ripple isn’t alone. It follows Circle, which received final OCC approval in July. Others like Coinbase (preliminary approval in April), Crypto.com, and Bridge (owned by Stripe) are still in the conditional phase.
THE DRAMA: Traditional banks are suing the OCC
Meanwhile, the traditional banking system is trying to block all of this.
The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA), which represents thousands of U.S. community banks, filed a federal lawsuit against the OCC on October 2.
Their argument: Congress never gave the OCC the power to grant national trust bank charters to companies that do business in crypto. They want to overturn the final rule issued on March 2, 2026, and OCC Interpretive Letter No. 1176, which opened the door.
The ICBA argues that the OCC is creating a more lightly regulated parallel banking system, without the same standards as traditional banks, resulting in unfair competition.
And this is happening just as the U.S. government moves forward with the GENIUS Act, the new federal law for stablecoins.
My take:
This is the biggest institutional validation in Ripple’s history. After years of fighting the SEC, the company now has a FEDERAL bank.
This addresses the biggest criticism of RLUSD: trust and compliance. With reserves managed by a supervised national bank, it becomes much more attractive for banks, fintechs, and corporations to use with Ripple Payments and Ripple Prime.
This is the move that takes Ripple from being just “the XRP company” to becoming a truly regulated financial infrastructure provider.
Bullish for RLUSD. Bullish for XRP as a liquidity asset. And a huge step forward for the entire industry.
What do you think? Is RLUSD going to take on USDC and USDT now?