Ripple received final approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) today to establish Ripple National Trust Bank (RNTB), a federally supervised national trust bank based in New York. The company simultaneously announced expanded partnerships with BNY and Robinhood, together extending the reach of its RLUSD stablecoin across institutional custody, trade finance and retail trading.
The OCC had granted conditional approval in December 2025. RNTB does not plan to issue stablecoins. That role stays with Standard Custody & Trust Company (SCTC), Ripple’s existing subsidiary regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services. Instead, RNTB will manage the segregated reserve assets backing RLUSD on a directed basis, act as collateral trustee for RLUSD holders in a fiduciary capacity, and provide fiduciary cryptocurrency custody services to affiliates and external institutional clients.
Ripple was part of a December 2025 batch of conditional approvals that also included Circle, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos. The OCC has since granted a wave of similar charters to digital asset firms.
However, the trust charter program faces a legal challenge. The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) sued the OCC on October 2, seeking to void the March 2026 rule and Interpretive Letter that underpin the agency’s authority to grant these charters. According to the ICBA’s complaint, the OCC has approved or conditionally approved 21 trust bank charters under the current administration, at least 13 tied to digital asset firms. ICBA argues the OCC exceeded its statutory authority and that the structure gives crypto firms the credibility of a federal bank charter without the same requirements faced by community banks.
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