Ripple Just Got a Federal Bank Charter. Community Banks Sued Over These Charters 24 Days Ago.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency gave Ripple final approval on Monday, October 26, to open Ripple National Trust Bank, a federally supervised trust bank that will hold the reserves behind the RLUSD stablecoin and offer digital asset custody to large companies. It completes a process Ripple started in July 2025 and that cleared conditional approval on December 12, 2025. The timing is the twist: 24 days earlier, on October 2, the Independent Community Bankers of America sued the OCC in federal court to have exactly this kind of charter declared unlawful.

What the Charter Does and Doesn't Allow

Ripple's press release lists three things the new bank is authorized to do: manage the segregated reserves backing RLUSD, act as collateral trustee of those reserves on behalf of RLUSD holders, and provide fiduciary digital asset custody services to enterprises once it opens. Ripple gave no opening date.

Two things it does not do matter just as much. First, Ripple National Trust Bank does not issue RLUSD. The stablecoin keeps being issued by Standard Custody & Trust Company, Ripple's limited purpose trust company regulated by the New York Department of Financial Services, per Ripple and The Block. The federal charter adds OCC supervision on top of the state layer rather than replacing it. Second, a national trust charter does not permit deposit-taking or lending, and the OCC says most national trust banks carry no FDIC insurance, as Cointelegraph noted.

RLUSD launched in December 2024 and has a market cap of about $2.5 billion by Ripple's count, or about $2.6 billion per CoinGecko data cited by Decrypt. BNY is its primary reserve custodian. Ripple uses the coin across its payments network and as collateral inside Ripple Prime, the prime brokerage it built on Hidden Road, the $1.25 billion acquisition it closed in October 2025. The company says it now holds more than 85 licenses worldwide.

"From Within the System"

CEO Brad Garlinghouse announced the approval on X heading into Ripple Swell, the company's annual conference. "For years, we've said crypto and banks work better together," he said in the release. "Final approval for Ripple National Trust Bank is what that looks like in practice." On X he put it more bluntly: "Real innovation, real accountability, federal oversight," and, "The revolution isn't happening outside the system. It's happening from within it."

The market barely moved. XRP rose 0.5% to $1.29 over the following 24 hours, per CoinGecko figures reported by Decrypt, one of only two top-ten coins to gain that day. That is nothing like the swing one executive comment produced in CoreWeave's stock this month, which suggests December's conditional approval had already done the pricing.

The Lawsuit Aimed at Charters Like This One

The Independent Community Bankers of America filed suit against the OCC and Comptroller Jonathan Gould on October 2 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The complaint, brought under the Administrative Procedure Act, targets the OCC's March 2, 2026 final rule and its Interpretive Letter 1176, which together affirm the agency's authority to charter national trust banks that perform non-fiduciary activities. ICBA asks the court to declare both unlawful.

The trade group argues that the National Bank Act never authorized uninsured trust banks as a vehicle for crypto companies, which get a federal banner without the capital requirements, consolidated supervision and FDIC insurance that community banks carry. According to the filing, as reported by American Banker and CoinMarketCap, the OCC has approved 21 trust banks during the Trump administration, at least 13 of them crypto companies. "U.S. consumers reasonably expect a federally chartered bank to carry federal protections," ICBA president and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey said. "Digital assets held at a crypto firm operating under a national trust charter do not carry those safeguards." Decrypt summarized ICBA's framing as charters that open "a side door into the banking system for crypto firms." The OCC told reporters it does not comment on litigation.

The suit does not name Ripple, and it would not automatically undo an approval already granted. But it goes after the rule the approvals rest on, which is why the Digital Chamber, a crypto trade group, has urged the OCC to "defend these charter approvals and continue developing clear supervisory expectations for trust banks."

Ripple has been a named target before. In a May 18 letter to Gould, Senator Elizabeth Warren said the OCC had granted at least nine national trust charters to crypto companies since December 2025, singled out Ripple, Circle, Paxos, Fidelity, BitGo and Coinbase, and called them "effectively crypto banks that want to evade the fundamental safeguards" of the National Bank Act.

The Queue Behind Ripple

Ripple is the second firm from the December 2025 conditional-approval round to finish. Circle got final approval on July 10, 2026 for First National Digital Currency Bank, which brings USDC's reserves under federal supervision. BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos were conditionally approved in the same round. Coinbase received its conditional approval in April 2026, Crypto.com and Stripe's Bridge in February, and World Liberty Financial, the Trump family's crypto venture, later in the year, per The Block and Cointelegraph. Anchorage Digital has operated under a national trust charter since January 2021.

The ground is still moving under all of them. On October 21, the OCC finalized its first rule under the GENIUS Act for payment stablecoin issuers, effective January 18, 2027, which Gould called "a clear, practical framework for payment stablecoin innovation." The agency has not said when it will start taking applications. Ripple said it will keep working with the OCC, NYDFS and other regulators as the bank begins operating.

Fintech has spent 2026 converging on the banking system from both sides: Ramp reached a $60 billion valuation while its old rival Brex sold itself to Capital One, and crypto firms are lining up for federal charters. Whether the OCC's door stays open is now a question for a federal judge in Washington.

Sources

• Ripple: Ripple Receives Final OCC Approval to Establish National Trust Bank
• The Block: Ripple gains final OCC approval to launch national trust bank and bring RLUSD under federal oversight
• Decrypt: Ripple Wins Final OCC Approval for Trust Bank Behind $2.6B RLUSD Stablecoin
• Cointelegraph: Ripple Secures Final OCC Approval for National Trust Bank
• Independent Banker: ICBA sues OCC over national trust bank charters for crypto firms
• Decrypt: OCC Finalizes GENIUS Act Stablecoin Rules Ahead of January Deadline