RLUSD Holders Poised to Gain Most From Ripple's Bank Charter

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has given Ripple final authorization for a national trust bank. The charter's purpose is to cover the reserves supporting the $2.5 billion RLUSD stablecoin, leaving XRP without a role.

XRP holders are positioned farthest from the charter's direct perks. The token's price on BeInCrypto Markets stands at $1.31, having gained 1.11% in the last day. It remains roughly 64% below the $3.65 peak from July 2025.

Ripple's New Bank Charter Benefits RLUSD Holders Most

The Ripple National Trust Bank (RNTB) initially received conditional approval in December. The final clearance came Monday, as announced by the company, allowing the bank to operate under OCC oversight. Journalist Eleanor Terrett highlighted on X that Ripple joins a list that includes Circle, BitGo, and Fidelity Digital Assets; Circle's own final approval came in July.

RNTB will handle the dollar deposits, US government securities, and cash equivalents that back RLUSD. The bank will also act as trustee for those reserves on behalf of the token's holders.

Once open, RNTB can offer fiduciary custody of digital assets to corporations. According to law firm Davis Wright Tremaine, such banks may, in certain instances, serve as qualified custodians for institutional clients.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse directly linked the charter to the stablecoin.

“A national trust charter gives us an even stronger foundation for RLUSD and the institutional products we're building across payments, custody and capital markets,” Garlinghouse said.

Big news heading into @RippleSwell: the @USOCC has granted final approval for Ripple National Trust Bank.

This gives Ripple a federally supervised platform to support $RLUSD and provide digital asset custody to enterprises.

We've always said crypto and banks work better…
— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) October 26, 2026

What Part Does XRP Play in Ripple's Banking Push?

The RLUSD supply was approximately $1.38 billion in January when it reached a record. DefiLlama currently reports it at around $2.57 billion, an 86% climb. During that span, XRP declined from about $2.08 to $1.31, a 37% fall.

Most of the RLUSD also moves beyond XRP's native network. DefiLlama's data shows approximately 61% of the supply is on Ethereum and 39% on the XRP Ledger (XRPL).

Every XRPL transaction consumes a minor XRP fee, while Ethereum transactions pay fees in ETH. Hence RLUSD usage on Ethereum does not contribute to XRP burn rates, and fees on XRPL are insufficient to shift supply in a meaningful way.

This interpretation could shift if RNTB's custody division holds institutional XRP. A movement of RLUSD issuance towards XRPL would also connect the stablecoin's growth more tightly to the token.

The unanswered question for XRP holders is what assets RNTB will decide to custody after it opens. Until that becomes clear, XRP's price prospects rely more on overall market trends than on the charter.