Ripple wins final US approval for national trust bank

The approval clears the way for Ripple to manage reserves backing its RLUSD stablecoin and provide digital asset custody. Ripple announced Monday that its national trust bank has secured final approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The >approval completes the chartering process for Ripple National Trust Bank (RNTB), which received conditional approval from the OCC in December 2025. The federally supervised trust bank is authorized to manage reserves backing Ripple USD (RLUSD), act as collateral trustee for the benefit of RLUSD holders and provide digital asset custody services, according to Ripple. RLUSD will continue to be issued by Standard Custody & Trust Company, Ripple’s limited purpose trust company regulated by the New York Department of Financial Services. “We’ve always said crypto and banks work better together — this is what that looks like. Real innovation, real accountability, federal oversight,” Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse >said on X on Monday. Ripple follows Circle, which secured final OCC approval in July. Other crypto firms remain at the conditional approval stage, including Coinbase, which received its preliminary green light in April, and Crypto.com and Stripe-owned Bridge, which received conditional approvals in February. A national trust bank is a federally chartered institution focused on holding and managing assets on behalf of clients. Unlike a typical commercial bank, most national trust banks do not accept deposits or make loans and do not carry Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation insurance, >according to the OCC. Related: Advocacy group pushes back on banks’ lawsuit against OCC over charters