Ripple has made a massive regulatory breakthrough in the US market, gaining the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's (OCC) final approval to build its own federally supervised national trust bank.
According to Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse's update on X, this development is a major one for the company and its institutional goals, especially leading up to their highly anticipated Swell conference in NYC.
The approved initiative enables Ripple National Trust Bank (RNTB) to handle reserves for its RLUSD stablecoin, act as a collateral trustee for stablecoin holders, and provide digital asset custody services to institutional customers.
"We've always said crypto and banks work better together," said Garlinghouse. "The latest approval shows how to integrate digital assets into the existing financial system.
The revolution isn't outside the system. It's from within the system," the Ripple chief added.
Ripple's banking ambitions
The latest finalized approval comes around 10 months after the conditional approval from the OCC in December 2024.
The national trust bank will be federally supervised, which represents a major boost to Ripple's regulatory and financial infrastructure.
Ripple won't be a traditional commercial bank that accepts regular deposits and makes loans with this charter.
It's important to note that RLUSD will still be issued by Standard Custody & Trust Company, which is Ripple's subsidiary regulated by the New York Department of Financial Services.
On the other hand, the federally supervised entity's main focus is managing reserves and providing fiduciary custody services.
To date, Ripple said the market cap of RLUSD has grown to around $2.5 billion since its launch in December 2024.
RLUSD is increasingly used in Ripple's institutional payments and trading environment.
This is an interesting development, especially ahead of Ripple's upcoming Swell 2026 on October 27–29 in New York City.
The event will be attended by industry leaders from traditional finance, the crypto industry, and the entire XRP ecosystem.
XRP doesn't move
Despite the impressive Ripple regulatory breakthrough, XRP did not record a big rally following this latest update.
As of early October 27 trading, XRP's price was hovering between $1.30 and $1.31, with minor movements in the last 24 hours.
As explained, this development is related to Ripple's stablecoin service and institutional custody.
It is not directly related to a sudden new XRP demand.
Arman Shirinyan
Dan Burgin
