Ripple has just won final federal approval to run its own national trust bank, a charter covering the $2.5 billion RLUSD stablecoin. For traders, this is a major step in crypto's move into regulated banking, because a federally supervised bank now stands behind part of RLUSD's setup, not just a state regulator.
Key points:
- The OCC has given final approval to Ripple National Trust Bank, after conditional approval in December 2025.
- The bank will manage RLUSD's segregated reserves, act as collateral trustee for those reserves, and offer fiduciary digital asset custody.
- RLUSD issuance stays with Ripple's New York-regulated Standard Custody & Trust Company, so the stablecoin now has both state and federal oversight.
Today, the approval caps a process that started in July 2025, when Ripple first applied for the banking licence, and moved to conditional OCC approval on December 12, 2025. Ripple chief executive Brad Garlinghouse announced the final approval on X late on Monday, saying crypto and banks work better together, and that a national trust charter gives Ripple a stronger foundation for RLUSD and its institutional products across payments, custody and capital markets.
A national trust charter is not a full-service bank licence. It does not allow deposit-taking or lending, and Ripple's structure keeps the trust work under federal supervision while issuance stays with its New York-regulated unit. RLUSD launched in December 2024 and has grown to about $2.5 billion in market value, putting it among the world's top 50 stablecoins. It is backed by US dollar deposits, US government securities and other cash-like assets, with BNY holding most of those reserves, and it is used in Ripple's payments business and as collateral on Ripple Prime. Ripple also uses XRP, the world's fifth-largest digital asset, to facilitate cross-border transactions.
Read also: OCC Urges Community Banks to Issue Stablecoins — Here's Why It Matters
What happens next?
For traders, the real signal is the wave this approval belongs to. Circle received its final OCC approval in July this year, BitGo received its green light in December 2025, and Coinbase, Crypto.com and World Liberty Financial have gained conditional approvals, among others. The next catalysts are concrete: the bank starting operations as it works with the OCC and New York regulators, the rollout of US stablecoin rules under the GENIUS Act, and the first named institutional custody clients. If RLUSD's $2.5 billion size starts growing faster from here, that will be the market's verdict on whether federal oversight actually brings in bigger money.
The risk is on the other side, and traders should not over-read the headline. A trust charter is a limited licence, not a promise of new deposits or lending, and the approval has already drawn criticism from some lawmakers, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, who argued these charters stretch banking law and pose risks to the financial system. The industry group The Digital Chamber rejected that argument, saying the charters are limited to trust and related fiduciary work and that the firms voluntarily submitted to federal supervision. Either way, the approval does not change RLUSD overnight: the bank still has to start operating, and the GENIUS Act framework still has to be put into practice.
Read also: Canada Opens 60-Day Stablecoin Consultation, Keeps Yield Ban — What's Next?
— BitByLine News Desk
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Sources: CoinDesk, The Block