Ripple has received final approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish Ripple National Trust Bank, the company announced in late October 2026. The new federally chartered institution will manage the reserves of the RLUSD stablecoin, placing them under federal oversight for the first time.

The OCC is the US federal agency that charters and supervises national banks and trust banks. A national trust charter permits fiduciary business and custody services, but it does not authorize deposit-taking or lending.

Ripple builds payment and crypto infrastructure for institutions and stands behind RLUSD, a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar that launched in December 2024. The token's issuer is Standard Custody & Trust Company (SCTC), a trust company regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). Ripple applied for the federal charter in July 2025, and conditional approval followed in December 2025. According to Ripple, RLUSD's market capitalization now stands at around USD 2.5 billion. The company uses the stablecoin in its own payment flows and as collateral on Ripple Prime. Ripple has not yet named an opening date for the bank.

What Ripple National Trust Bank will be allowed to do

Ripple announced the final approval in late October 2026, and CEO Brad Garlinghouse also shared the news on X. Ripple National Trust Bank, or RNTB, will take over management of the segregated RLUSD reserves. These funds sit apart from other assets and back the stablecoin. RNTB will further act as collateral trustee, meaning it holds the reserves in trust for RLUSD holders.

Once open, the bank is also set to hold digital assets in fiduciary custody. This function is not tied to RLUSD and covers digital assets in general.

Issuance of RLUSD, however, remains with SCTC, Ripple's limited-purpose trust company in New York. RNTB therefore does not issue the stablecoin itself. Through this structure, Ripple separates token issuance organizationally from the management of its reserves.

The charter nonetheless sets tight limits. As with any national trust bank, deposits and loans remain off the table, so the approval is not equivalent to a full banking license. The mandate covers only fiduciary services and custody — but in those areas, the bank is subject to federal oversight.

RLUSD comes under dual supervision

Until now, RLUSD has fallen under the supervision of New York State. The responsible body there is NYDFS, the state's financial regulator, which oversees trust companies among other entities. The national charter now adds OCC federal oversight, covering reserve management and custody, while NYDFS continues to supervise the issuer, SCTC. As a result, two supervisors will review different parts of the same structure. That matters because the reserves are what back the token — their supervision goes to the core of how RLUSD is regulated.

US dollar deposits, US Treasuries and other cash equivalents back RLUSD. BNY holds most of the reserves, and Ripple publishes monthly attestations by independent third parties on circulation and reserves. The charter does not bring FDIC deposit insurance, however, because trust banks do not take deposits. For holders, the change adds oversight of reserves and custody, yet no government guarantee.

Ripple plans to keep working with the OCC, NYDFS and other agencies as RNTB begins operations. The federal charter arrives while the US is implementing the GENIUS Act, the federal stablecoin law — a time when Washington is still setting the rules for issuers. Together with Circle's federally supervised USDC reserves, RNTB offers an early working example of how state and federal oversight can sit side by side for a dollar stablecoin. Garlinghouse sees the charter as a foundation for the company's institutional business.

"For years, we've said crypto and banks work better together. Final approval for Ripple National Trust Bank is what that looks like in practice. We've spent over a decade building regulated financial infrastructure that institutions can actually use at scale. A national trust charter gives us an even stronger foundation for RLUSD and the institutional products we're building across payments, custody and capital markets."

— Brad Garlinghouse, CEO, Ripple

Ripple follows Circle to final OCC approval

The process ran in two stages. In December 2025, the OCC conditionally approved five charter applications at once: Circle, Ripple, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos. The group also included the crypto arm of an established asset manager through Fidelity Digital Assets. Ripple received its conditional approval about five months after its July 2025 application, and another 10.5 months passed before final approval. Overall, the path to the charter took just under 16 months.

Circle got there comparatively faster. The USDC issuer received final approval for its First National Digital Currency Bank back in July 2026, a good three months before Ripple. Since then, the USDC reserves have been under federal oversight. BitGo now also reports final approval, after receiving conditional approval in December 2025 just like Ripple. Later, more applicants joined: Coinbase, Crypto.com and World Liberty Financial each received conditional approvals in 2026.

After Circle, Ripple is now the second firm to hold a final national trust charter. For both companies, the OCC therefore supervises the reserves of their respective dollar stablecoins. Ripple National Trust Bank is not the issuer, though — New York-based SCTC, under NYDFS supervision, continues to issue RLUSD. Whether other stablecoin issuers follow ultimately depends on the pending proceedings of the remaining applicants.

Warren and the Digital Chamber clash over the charters

National trust charters remain politically contested. Senator Elizabeth Warren criticizes the wave of OCC approvals for crypto firms as a violation of the National Bank Act, the federal law that governs the chartering of national banks in the US. The Democrat argues that the approvals also pose risks to the financial system. Her criticism thus targets the agency's chartering practice.

The Digital Chamber, a crypto industry trade group, disagrees. In its view, trust charters are limited to fiduciary and fiduciary-related activities, and the firms submit to federal oversight voluntarily. The pending applications from Coinbase, Crypto.com and World Liberty Financial sit squarely within this dispute: every final approval extends the chartering practice the two sides are arguing over.

Regardless of this debate, RNTB as a trust bank may neither accept deposits nor make loans. With the charter, Ripple also accepts a second layer of supervision that issuing RLUSD in New York did not require. The bank's launch date remains open for now. Likewise, the implementation of the GENIUS Act, which sets the federal framework for stablecoin issuers, is still underway. The OCC's pending decisions, together with RNTB's eventual opening, will show how far federal trust charters extend across the industry.

Source: Crypto Valley Journal