Ripple has received final approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to charter Ripple National Trust Bank, moving the company's U.S. banking plan beyond the preliminary stage announced in December 2025. Ripple disclosed the decision on October 26 and said the new entity will be a federally supervised national trust bank. Its approved activities include managing segregated reserves that support Ripple USD, serving as collateral trustee for those reserves on behalf of token holders and providing fiduciary custody for digital assets.

A conditional charter becomes final

The OCC gave Ripple preliminary conditional approval on December 12, 2025, subject to organization, governance, capital, compliance and operational requirements. The regulator's public applications database identifies the proposal as control number 2025-Charter-342347 and lists New York as the bank's headquarters, with proposed charter number 25364. Ripple said the final approval completes that organization process. Crypto Briefing independently reported the final decision and the trust bank's limited custody and reserve-management scope.

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RLUSD issuance remains with the New York trust company

The new federal charter does not shift issuance of RLUSD to the national trust bank. Ripple said Standard Custody & Trust Company, its limited-purpose trust company regulated by the New York Department of Financial Services, will continue to issue the dollar stablecoin. Ripple National Trust Bank will instead add OCC supervision around reserve management and the collateral-trustee function. That distinction separates the entity creating and redeeming tokens from the federally supervised bank responsible for specified reserve and fiduciary duties.

Custody extends the bank's mandate

Upon opening, the bank will also be authorized to provide fiduciary digital-asset custody to institutional clients. That is a narrower mandate than conventional consumer banking: the disclosed business plan centers on trust, custody and reserve services rather than checking accounts or general lending. The approval therefore gives Ripple a federally regulated vehicle for parts of its infrastructure, but it should not be read as permission to offer every product associated with a full-service commercial bank.

Opening and adoption remain separate tests

Final charter approval is a regulatory milestone, not evidence that every planned service is already operating at scale. Ripple said it will continue working with the OCC, the New York regulator and other authorities as the bank begins operations. Its release says BNY remains RLUSD's primary reserve custodian and that monthly third-party attestations cover circulating supply and reserve assets. Ripple also reported an RLUSD market capitalization of $2.5 billion; that is a company-provided snapshot rather than a forecast of future use.

Why the decision matters

The decision converts a pending regulatory path into a final federal charter for a crypto-focused trust bank. For RLUSD, it places specified reserve and trustee functions inside an OCC-supervised institution while leaving token issuance with the existing New York entity. For Ripple's custody business, it creates a national bank platform designed for fiduciary digital-asset services. The practical impact will depend on when the bank opens, which clients use it and how the federal and state entities divide their responsibilities in day-to-day operations. Disclosure of launch timing, client eligibility and service terms will be the next evidence needed to assess how much the charter changes Ripple's existing operations. Until then, the confirmed development is final regulatory authorization for the defined trust-bank business, not demonstrated adoption of every proposed service.

Sources

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