Ripple now has a federally supervised bank. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency gave final approval to Ripple National Trust Bank (RNTB), CEO Brad Garlinghouse announced on X late Monday, according to CoinDesk and Cointelegraph.
The approval closes a process that started with an application in July 2025 and a conditional green light that December. Garlinghouse framed it as the payoff of a long-running pitch, saying in a press release that "crypto and banks work better together" and that the charter gives Ripple a stronger foundation for RLUSD and its institutional products.
What the bank actually does
RNTB will manage the reserves backing RLUSD, Ripple's dollar stablecoin, and act as collateral trustee for RLUSD holders. It will also offer regulated custody, holding digital assets for institutional clients that use crypto in payments, trading, and treasury management.
One detail is worth pausing on. A national trust bank is not a bank in the everyday sense. Per the OCC's own description, most national trust banks do not accept deposits or make loans, and they carry no FDIC insurance. This is a custody and reserve-management entity with a federal charter, not a place where anyone opens a checking account. The headline sounds bigger than the institution.
RLUSD itself will still be issued by Standard Custody & Trust Company, Ripple's unit regulated by the New York Department of Financial Services. The practical effect is a stack of regulators: NYDFS watches the issuer, the OCC watches the reserves and custody. That layering is deliberate. Ripple is building the most supervised version of a stablecoin it can, because supervision is the sales pitch to institutions.
The numbers and the queue
RLUSD launched in December 2024 and now sits at about $2.5 billion in market value, which CoinDesk notes puts it among the world's top 50 stablecoins. The reserves are US dollar deposits, government securities, and other cash-like assets, with BNY holding most of them. Ripple also uses XRP, described as the world's fifth largest digital asset, for cross-border transactions. The company says it will keep working with the OCC and New York regulators as the US rolls out stablecoin rules under the GENIUS Act.
Ripple is not alone at the window. Circle got final OCC approval in July. Coinbase received a preliminary green light in April, and Crypto.com plus Stripe-owned Bridge picked up conditional approvals in February. The trust charter is becoming the default route for large crypto firms that want federal supervision without becoming full commercial banks.
My read
I think the honest way to read this is as a moat, not a milestone for adoption. Garlinghouse says Ripple spent over a decade building regulated financial infrastructure, and the charter converts that spending into a credential rivals without one cannot match. When a corporate treasurer decides whose stablecoin to hold, "our reserves sit inside a federally supervised trust bank" is a real argument, and Ripple knows it.
What I genuinely don't know is whether the charter moves RLUSD's actual position. Top 50 is respectable. It also means dozens of tokens sit ahead of it, and a banking license has never minted demand on its own. The GENIUS Act rollout could reward the firms that chartered early, or it could flatten the advantage by writing the rules for everyone. Nobody knows how that plays out, and I would distrust anyone who claims to.
Sources
- CoinDesk: Ripple gets a final go-ahead to launch its own U.S. national trust bank
- Cointelegraph: Ripple wins final US approval for national trust bank