Ripple says OCC clears national trust bank after 10 months

Ripple says the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has given final approval to Ripple National Trust Bank, moving the proposed charter beyond the conditional stage reached in December 2025. The bank is cleared to manage RLUSD reserves, act as collateral trustee for holders and offer fiduciary digital asset custody, according to Ripple’s October 26 announcement. That expands federal oversight around the stablecoin, but does not make the national trust bank its issuer: Ripple says issuance remains with Standard Custody & Trust Company, its New York-regulated affiliate.

What changed since the OCC’s conditional approval?

The new step, as reported by Ripple, completes the chartering process that began with a conditional OCC approval on December 12, 2025. At that point, the regulator said Ripple’s application was conditionally approved, alongside four other crypto-related trust bank applications. The conditional decision was not permission to begin operating: it left the applicants subject to OCC requirements before opening. Ripple now says its bank has final approval, though it has not announced an opening date.

The public record merits a distinction. The OCC’s December announcement confirms the earlier conditional approval. Its public Interpretations & Decisions page currently lists letters through September 2026 and still shows Ripple’s December decision, with no final approval entry. The reported change is therefore Ripple’s announcement of the final approval; the OCC page confirms the earlier stage, not the newer one.

What can the trust bank do, and what stays elsewhere?

Ripple says the bank can manage the segregated reserves backing RLUSD, serve as collateral trustee for those reserves for holders, and provide fiduciary digital asset custody. These functions put reserve management and custody within a federally supervised entity. RLUSD itself will continue to be issued by Standard Custody & Trust Company under New York Department of Financial Services oversight, so the charter does not consolidate issuance into the new bank.

The distinction also sets the limits of the move. The Block reports that national trust bank charters do not permit deposit-taking or lending, separating this model from a full-service commercial bank. Ripple gains a federal trust and custody platform tied to its stablecoin and institutional business; it does not gain the ordinary deposit and loan functions associated with commercial banking. That narrower scope may suit reserve stewardship and custody, while leaving the issuer and its state supervision in place.

How does Ripple compare with other crypto applicants?

Ripple is not the first crypto firm to reach a final OCC approval. The Block reports that Circle received final approval in July for its trust bank, which will bring USDC reserves under federal supervision. BitGo also received a green light in December 2025, while Coinbase, Crypto.com and World Liberty Financial had conditional approvals at the time of The Block’s report. The sequence shows the OCC pathway moving from conditional decisions toward completed charters for some applicants, though each firm’s structure and permitted activities differ.

For RLUSD, Ripple says the stablecoin launched in December 2024 and has a $2.5 billion market capitalization. BNY is its primary reserve custodian, and Ripple says it publishes monthly independent attestations of circulating supply and reserve assets. The trust bank adds federal supervision to a framework that already includes New York oversight and an external reserve custodian. The trade-off is additional regulatory infrastructure and a specialized custody capability, alongside continued reliance on a separate affiliate for issuance.

The next signals are operational: when Ripple National Trust Bank opens, when its custody services begin, and whether the OCC publishes a final decision or other documentation in its public record. Ripple says it will continue working with the OCC and NYDFS as operations begin. Those steps will show how the new federal charter works alongside the existing New York issuer and whether Ripple’s arrangement becomes a practical template for other stablecoin firms.

Sources and documents

• Ripple’s October 26 announcement — ripple.com
• December announcement — occ.gov