Ripple has secured final approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to launch Ripple National Trust Bank, a federally supervised national trust bank. This approval comes 10 months after the OCC conditionally approved Ripple's application in December 2025, alongside other firms like Circle, Paxos, Fidelity Digital Assets, and BitGo. The bank will manage the reserves backing Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin, act as a collateral trustee for holders, and offer fiduciary digital asset custody services to enterprises.
RLUSD, launched in December 2024, has a market capitalization of about $2.6 billion. While the stablecoin will be issued by Standard Custody & Trust Company, it will now operate under both state and federal supervision. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse celebrated the approval, stating, '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.' He added in a tweet, 'The revolution isn't happening outside the system. It's happening from within it.'
The approval comes amid legal challenges from community banks and criticism from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who argued that the OCC's crypto charters violate the National Bank Act. The Independent Community Bankers of America recently sued the OCC, claiming the charters allow crypto firms to bypass traditional banking regulations. Despite these challenges, Ripple plans to continue collaborating with regulators as it begins operations and the U.S. implements the GENIUS Act's stablecoin framework.
XRP, the cryptocurrency closely associated with Ripple, rose 0.5% over the past 24 hours to $1.29, according to CoinGecko, making it one of only two top-10 coins by market cap to gain on the day alongside Zcash.