Ripple gets OCC unconditional charter approval to launch national trust bank
The short version
- The crypto firm secured final approval for a national trust bank charter.
- The charter allows digital asset custody services.
- It does not permit taking commercial deposits.
- BNY, the nation's oldest bank, will custody reserves.
Ripple just cleared a major federal hurdle after years of fighting regulators. Ripple has received final approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to launch a national trust bank, according to Yahoo Finance. The green light comes nearly a year after the federal banking regulator gave Ripple and four other cryptocurrency firms conditional approval.
"Clear rules plus rigorous oversight create trust," Stuart Alderoty, Ripple's chief legal officer, said in a post on X. A national trust charter does not allow Ripple to take traditional customer deposits or lend commercially. Instead, Ripple will be permitted to provide fiduciary digital-asset custody services, manage the reserves supporting the company's stablecoin RLUSD, and act as a collateral trustee for those reserves.
Ripple also doubled down on its relationship with BNY, the nation's oldest bank, announcing the two would broaden institutional digital asset custody capabilities. BNY has served as the primary reserve custodian of RLUSD, and the bank now intends to boost its support for tokenized assets issued on Ripple's XRP Ledger.
Ripple also announced a strategic partnership making RLUSD available for retail and institutional use across Robinhood, the commission-free stock and crypto trading app. The regulatory win marks a massive shift for Ripple after the Securities and Exchange Commission, the federal agency that regulates stock markets, sued the company in December 2020 over its XRP token.
