Ripple is moving quickly to build on its newest regulatory win, announcing expanded partnerships with BNY and Robinhood just a day after securing a federal trust bank charter.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has granted final approval for Ripple National Trust Bank, a federally supervised institution tied closely to the company’s RLUSD stablecoin.
The approval arrives almost a year after the regulator first gave Ripple and four other crypto firms conditional clearance for national trust bank charters.
Once it opens, the bank will manage the reserves backing RLUSD, act as collateral trustee for those reserves, and provide fiduciary digital asset custody to enterprise clients.
The charter has clear limits. Ripple will not be able to take deposits or make commercial loans, and the bank will not carry FDIC insurance.
RLUSD itself will continue to be issued by Standard Custody and Trust Company, Ripple’s New York regulated trust company, so federal oversight now sits on top of existing state supervision.
Ripple’s chief executive, Brad Garlinghouse, says crypto and banks work better together, describing the charter as a stronger foundation for RLUSD and the company’s institutional products.
The first of Tuesday’s announcements deepens Ripple’s relationship with BNY, which already serves as the primary reserve custodian for RLUSD.
Under the expanded collaboration, the two firms will broaden institutional custody capabilities and explore new blockchain use cases, including tokenized trade finance.
BNY also intends to increase its support for tokenized assets and investment products issued on the XRP Ledger, giving institutions a more familiar route into onchain markets.
The bank further aims to let clients mint and redeem RLUSD directly through BNY, which would remove a layer of friction for large institutional users.
Ripple president Monica Long says the industry is moving past the initial issuance of onchain assets and toward making them usable for payments and collateral.
The second partnership brings RLUSD into the Robinhood ecosystem, targeting both retail and institutional users across the fintech’s growing digital asset business.
RLUSD is live on Robinhood Chain and on Bitstamp, the exchange Robinhood acquired in 2024, with availability in the Robinhood app expected later this year.
Robinhood can also use RLUSD on the XRP Ledger for institutional settlement, adding a stablecoin option for its back-end financial operations.
Johann Kerbrat, who leads Robinhood Crypto and International, says the deal shows what a connected, global financial system can look like.
The timing carries extra weight because Ripple spent much of this decade fighting the SEC over whether its XRP token counts as a security.
That dispute has given way to a very different posture, with Ripple now positioning itself as a regulated infrastructure provider working alongside established banks.
The company has also built out its offering through acquisitions, adding a prime brokerage, a stablecoin platform and a treasury management software provider.
Not everyone is celebrating. Community banking groups are challenging the OCC’s crypto charters in court, and the approval lands in the middle of that fight.
The Digital Chamber, a crypto trade group, is urging the OCC to defend its charter approvals and keep developing clear supervisory expectations for trust banks.
Some analysts also note that XRP has no formal role in the new bank, which centers on RLUSD reserves and custody rather than the token itself.
XRP trades near $1.33 on Wednesday, up modestly on the day, as traders weigh the news against broader market caution.
The announcements also land around Ripple’s Swell conference, so further product and partnership news could follow in the coming days.
