The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has given final approval for Ripple National Trust Bank, Ripple chief executive Brad Garlinghouse announced. The new federally supervised bank will be able to manage the reserves of the RLUSD stablecoin, act as collateral trustee for its holders and offer digital asset custody to institutional clients. RLUSD will continue to be issued by Ripple’s unit regulated by New York’s financial regulator.
What it means: The approval is part of a series of national trust bank charters the OCC has granted to crypto firms ahead of the GENIUS Act on stablecoins taking effect in January 2027. For Ripple, federal oversight of RLUSD reserves is a credibility argument towards banks and large companies, which want to know that the money behind a stablecoin is held by a regulated institution. At the same time, US banking groups question whether such charters give crypto firms the benefits of a bank without all of its obligations, so the political debate is not over. In Europe, RLUSD is not automatically available as a payment instrument: a stablecoin referencing a currency needs authorisation as an e-money token under MiCA to be offered to customers in the EU. Greek businesses considering stablecoins for international payments should therefore check not only the issuer’s US supervision but also its EU status and whether their own provider holds a CASP licence. The trend is clear, though: major stablecoins are moving further inside the banking framework.
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