Ripple
Holds conditional OCC approval for a national trust bank — which, with a Fed master account, would put RLUSD reserves at the central bank itself.
- Founded
- 2012
- Registered
- United States
- Site
- ripple.com
The short answer
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has conditionally approved Ripple National Trust Bank, and the consequence people miss is what it would do to RLUSD. Today the stablecoin is issued by Standard Custody & Trust, a New York limited purpose trust under NYDFS supervision. With a federal charter and a Federal Reserve master account, its reserves would sit at the central bank rather than at a commercial bank — removing the counterparty exposure every other issuer carries.
Key facts
| National trust bank | Conditional OCC approval for Ripple National Trust Bank, a federally supervised trust bankas of 27 Sept 2026 · source |
|---|---|
| RLUSD issuer today | Standard Custody & Trust Company, a Ripple subsidiary holding a New York limited purpose trust charter under NYDFSas of 27 Sept 2026 |
| What a Fed master account would change | RLUSD reserves would sit at the Federal Reserve rather than a commercial bank, removing the counterparty exposure every other issuer carriesas of 27 Sept 2026 |
| Not the same as XRP | Ripple the company and XRP the asset are distinct. Price, supply and market data are on our [XRP page](/markets/ripple).as of 27 Sept 2026 |
Why the banking charter matters more than the headlines suggest
The OCC has conditionally approved Ripple National Trust Bank, and the coverage has mostly treated it as a credibility milestone. The substantive consequence is about reserves.
Every dollar-backed stablecoin has to keep its reserves somewhere, and almost all of them keep them at commercial banks. That is an exposure: if the bank holding the reserves fails, the stablecoin has a problem it did not create. This is not hypothetical — USDC briefly lost its peg in March 2023 because part of its reserves sat at a bank that failed.
A federally chartered trust bank with a Federal Reserve master account changes the answer. Reserves held at the Fed carry no commercial bank counterparty risk, because the Fed does not fail. For RLUSD that would be the strongest reserve arrangement any stablecoin has, ahead of Circle’s national trust charter and far ahead of Tether’s offshore attestations.
The conditions attached matter and the master account is a separate decision from the charter — Kraken’s came as a 12-month pilot, and only three Tier 3 applicants have ever been approved. So this is a strong position and not a completed one.
RLUSD is issued today by Standard Custody & Trust, a Ripple subsidiary with a New York limited purpose trust charter under NYDFS supervision — already a stronger arrangement than most, and a state one.
Ripple the company is not XRP the asset
This confusion is near-universal and it matters for anything you might conclude. Ripple Labs is a private company that builds payment infrastructure, issues RLUSD and holds a large quantity of XRP. XRP is a digital asset on a public ledger that existed alongside the company and does not depend on it to function.
The company’s successes and failures affect XRP’s price through sentiment and through the size of its holdings, and they are not the same thing. A banking charter for Ripple is not a banking charter for XRP; a legal outcome for the company is not a property of the ledger.
We cover the asset separately, with price, supply and market data, on our XRP page. This page is about the company — what it is building, what it is licensed to do, and what it would mean if the remaining approvals land.
Incident record
No recorded incidents since 2012, verified 27 Sept 2026.
Our coverage of Ripple
- How to spot a fake proof of reserves27 Sept 2026
- Bitget loses $351.6m — and the fund it says covers it is one we could not verify25 Sept 2026
- Is Kraken safe? The evidence, and what it lacks25 Sept 2026
- What happens to your coins if an exchange goes bankrupt23 Sept 2026
- Is Coinbase safe? What its own filings say19 Sept 2026
- How to move crypto off an exchange, step by step17 Sept 2026
- Token approvals: the permission that drains wallets15 Sept 2026
- What "not your keys, not your coins" leaves out9 Sept 2026
- The seed phrase mistakes that cost people everything7 Sept 2026
- Hardware wallet or software wallet: how to decide5 Sept 2026
Questions people ask
Did Ripple get a banking licence?
It holds conditional approval from the OCC to establish Ripple National Trust Bank, a federally supervised trust bank. Conditional approval is not the finished article, and a Federal Reserve master account is a separate decision on top of it.
Who issues RLUSD?
Standard Custody & Trust Company, a Ripple subsidiary holding a New York limited purpose trust charter regulated by NYDFS. If the federal charter completes and a Fed master account follows, reserves could sit at the central bank instead of a commercial bank.
Why would reserves at the Fed matter?
Because it removes commercial bank counterparty risk. USDC briefly lost its peg in March 2023 because part of its reserves sat at a bank that failed. Reserves at the Federal Reserve cannot fail that way, which would make RLUSD’s arrangement the strongest of any stablecoin.
Is Ripple the same as XRP?
No. Ripple Labs is a private company building payment infrastructure and issuing RLUSD; XRP is an asset on a public ledger that functions independently of it. The company holds a large quantity of XRP, which links them commercially but not technically. See our [XRP page](/markets/ripple) for the asset.
What changed
- 27 Sept 2026 — Profile published.