Ripple wins final US approval for its national trust bank to hold RLUSD stablecoin reserves

Ripple has won final approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for Ripple National Trust Bank, completing a charter process that began with conditional approval in December 2025, Cointelegraph reported on Tuesday.

What the approval allows

The federally supervised trust bank can:

• manage the reserves that back Ripple USD (RLUSD), Ripple's dollar stablecoin
• act as collateral trustee for RLUSD holders
• provide custody for digital assets

RLUSD itself will still be issued by Standard Custody and Trust Company, Ripple's New York-regulated trust company. "We've always said crypto and banks work better together, this is what that looks like," Ripple chief executive Brad Garlinghouse wrote on X.

A national trust bank is not an ordinary bank. Most do not take deposits or make loans, and their accounts are not covered by US federal deposit insurance. They hold and manage assets for clients.

Who else has one

The approvals come under the US GENIUS Act, which set federal rules for payment stablecoins. On Monday the OCC also urged smaller community banks to become stablecoin issuers themselves.

What it means in Pakistan

XRP, Ripple's associated token, traded around $1.30 on Tuesday morning, and bitcoin near $80,000 (live price on our bitcoin page). For Pakistanis, the bigger story is the regulatory model: Pakistan is building its own framework through the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority and a state-owned crypto wallet company, which has just been given independent directors (our story). US rules on how stablecoin reserves must be held tend to shape what regulators elsewhere ask for.

Remember that crypto trading in Pakistan remains lightly regulated, prices move fast, and any gain is taxable. Use the currency converter to see dollar prices in rupees.