Garlinghouse's Ripple Wins a Federal Bank Charter

Ripple's Charter Took 318 Days to Clear the OCC

Ripple filed for its national trust bank charter in July 2025¹. The OCC granted conditional approval that December 12. Final approval landed on Oct. 26, 2026. That is 318 days later. Ripple National Trust Bank can now hold RLUSD's reserves as a federally supervised trustee. It can act as collateral trustee for RLUSD holders, too. Digital asset custody for enterprise clients comes with the charter as well.

Standard Custody & Trust Company still issues RLUSD¹. It holds a New York state license. The new federal charter sits on top of that license. It leaves the state license in place. BNY serves as RLUSD's primary reserve custodian, Decrypt reported². RLUSD launched in December 2024. It backs Ripple's payments network. Ripple Prime, the company's brokerage arm, holds it as collateral too. Decrypt put RLUSD's market value a touch higher than The Block did. Decrypt's figure was $2.6 billion, reported Oct. 27, 2026.

Trust Charters Skip Deposits and Loans

A national trust bank charter stops short of a full banking license. It skips the two things most people picture when they hear the word bank. Those two things are taking deposits and making loans¹. Ripple's new unit can manage segregated reserves. It can act as their trustee, too. Digital asset custody for other firms comes with the charter as well. Federal deposit insurance stays off the table, since the charter forbids deposit-taking entirely. A reader should know that gap before trusting the word "bank" in this story's own headline.

That gap sits at the center of Ripple's loudest critics. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is one of them. She argues the OCC's wave of crypto trust charters lets companies dodge stricter rules². A commercial bank follows those stricter rules. “These companies are effectively crypto banks that want to evade the fundamental safeguards and obligations that come with being a bank,” Warren said.

Earlier this month, the Independent Community Bankers of America sued the OCC². The lawsuit targets charters like Ripple's. A filing called them "a side door into the banking system for crypto firms." That side door, the trade group argues, skips capital rules and consolidated oversight. The Digital Chamber, a crypto trade group of its own, rejects that framing¹. It argues a national trust charter stays limited to trust and fiduciary work, and that each firm chose federal supervision rather than ducking it. Garlinghouse answers with the opposite reading. He sees regulators and crypto working the same side. “We've always said crypto and banks work better together — this is what that looks like. Real innovation, real accountability, federal oversight,” he said.

Six Firms Now Chase the Same Charter

Ripple joins a small club. The OCC has built it one charter at a time. Six crypto firms sit in The Block's own tally¹. Ripple, Circle and BitGo hold final approval. Coinbase, Crypto.com and World Liberty Financial hold conditional approval only.

Circle's charter turned final in July 2026¹. That brought USDC's own reserve under the same kind of federal watch. The OCC's December 2025 conditional round ran wider still. Ripple, Circle, BitGo, Paxos and Fidelity Digital Assets all cleared that first step together, Decrypt reported². A national charter lets a stablecoin issuer answer to one federal regulator. It skips a state-by-state patchwork of trust licenses. Each firm still carries its own state trust charter, too. The OCC's review adds a second regulator. New York's regulator keeps its own seat at the table. A reader who tracks custody deals should watch this list grow. Each new name shifts who answers for billions in stablecoin reserves.

Three More Posts Ranked High Carried Different Risks

Crypto's feeds carried three more widely shared posts the same stretch. Each one pointed to a different kind of risk than Ripple's charter did.

Journalist Eleanor Terrett tracked a growing objection list⁶. The list targets OKX and Intercontinental Exchange's tokenized stock venture. IBM, Oracle, Intel and IonQ had just joined it. That brought the total to 26 objecting companies. Just four days earlier, on Oct. 23, 2026, the count stood at 22⁴.

The SEC's Sept. 17, 2026 exemption gives a company 30 days to object⁴. That clock starts once a venue tries to tokenize its shares, crypto.news reported. An objection blocks that one venue's listing. It leaves tokenization elsewhere untouched. Unchained's own read of OKXICE's notice found more names on the same list⁵. Microsoft, Alphabet, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo all appear, alongside smaller names such as Moderna and Marvell Technology. OKXICE first floated 63 tickers from 62 companies on Oct. 4, 2026. Objectors now cover nearly two in five of them.

Zcash co-founder Sean Bowe posted a draft proposal⁹. It would end automatic funding for the network's grants committee. Bowe argues the committee's treasury already holds more than it needs. He wants "the spigot" turned off. CoinDesk reported his plan would redirect that funding into a reserve for future mining rewards⁷. The committee's current $8.8 million in cash and 91,453 ZEC would stay untouched. Cointelegraph put those ZEC holdings alone near $111 million⁸. Bowe's post skipped a separate dispute. A committee grant had put Zcash's private-payments pitch on display at an adult-industry convention over the weekend. That spending choice drew its own criticism inside the community.

Lookonchain flagged a third post¹². Three wallets, likely tied to one trader, moved 482,228 SOL toward exchanges over three days. That SOL was worth about $49.17 million. Of that total, 171,430 SOL had already landed on exchanges, Bloomingbit reported¹¹. Those coins were worth about $17.3 million. SOL traded near $99.89 on Bitcoin.com News's count¹⁰. The coin was down 17 percent over 30 days. It sat 66 percent below its January 2025 peak of $293.31. Bitcoin itself sat near $79,590, down nearly 6 percent for the month. A slide like that tends to hit a volatile token such as SOL harder than it hits the larger coin.

By the numbers

• 318 days: the span from the OCC's conditional approval of Ripple's trust charter on Dec. 12, 2025 to its final approval on Oct. 26, 2026¹.
• $2.5 billion: RLUSD's market value when The Block reported Ripple's final OCC approval¹.
• 19,780 likes and 1,705 replies: the count on Garlinghouse's announcement post, read by the CryptoLately.com Desk at 11:19 UTC on Oct. 27, 2026³.
• Three of six: the crypto firms The Block named that now hold final, rather than conditional, OCC trust charters¹.
• 26 companies: issuers that have objected to OKX and ICE's tokenized stock venue, up from 22 four days earlier⁵.
• Over $125 million: the treasury Sean Bowe cites in his proposal to end Zcash's automatic grants funding⁷.
• Near $49.17 million: the SOL three wallets moved toward exchanges over three days, per Lookonchain¹².
• $1.31: XRP's price on CoinGecko as of 11:14 UTC on Oct. 27, 2026¹³.

What to watch

Watch for Ripple National Trust Bank's first audited reserve report. It will show whether RLUSD's reserves match the $2.5 billion figure Ripple now cites. The Independent Community Bankers of America's lawsuit against the OCC deserves a close read too. A ruling there would settle whether the whole wave of crypto trust charters stands as written. Three more tests sit on the calendar. OKXICE still owes its 26 objectors an answer. Zcash's community still owes Bowe's funding proposal a vote. Lookonchain's tracked wallets still owe their next move. Each one will show whether this week's other posts carried lasting weight.

Sources

1. Danny Park, "Ripple gains final OCC approval to launch national trust bank and bring RLUSD under federal oversight," The Block, Oct. 26, 2026, https://www.theblock.co/news/regulation/2026-10-26-ripple-gains-final-occ-approval-rlusd-431810
2. "Ripple Wins Final OCC Approval for Trust Bank Behind $2.6B RLUSD Stablecoin," Decrypt, Oct. 27, 2026, https://decrypt.co/381899/ripple-wins-final-occ-approval-for-trust-bank-behind-2-6b-rlusd-stablecoin
3. Brad Garlinghouse, post on X, Oct. 26, 2026, https://x.com/bgarlinghouse/status/2114860293859778775
4. Olivia Stephanie, "IBM, Oracle, Intel join OKX-ICE tokenized stock objections as total hits 26," crypto.news, Oct. 27, 2026, https://crypto.news/ibm-oracle-intel-okxice-tokenized-stock-objections-26/
5. "Oracle, IBM and Intel Have Opted Out of OKX-ICE Stock Tokens, Venue's Own Notice Shows," Unchained, Oct. 27, 2026, https://unchainedcrypto.com/oracle-ibm-and-intel-have-opted-out-of-okx-ice-stock-tokens-venues-own-notice-shows/
6. Eleanor Terrett, post on X, Oct. 27, 2026, https://x.com/EleanorTerrett/status/2114935146122232124
7. Shaurya Malwa, "Zcash co-founder proposes ending grants funding, citing $125 million treasury," CoinDesk, Oct. 27, 2026, https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/10/27/zcash-co-founder-proposes-ending-grants-funding-citing-usd125-million-treasury
8. Zoltan Vardai, "Zcash Co-Founder Proposes Ending ZCG's Funding Stream," Cointelegraph, Oct. 27, 2026, https://cointelegraph.com/news/zcash-co-founder-ending-zcg-funding-125m
9. Sean Bowe, post on X, Oct. 27, 2026, https://x.com/ebfull/status/2114911107718742451
10. Shiraz Jagati, "Solana Price Dips Under $100 as SOL Whale Is Quietly Dumping $49M," Bitcoin.com News, Oct. 27, 2026, https://news.bitcoin.com/altcoins/solana-whale-dumping-49m-sol-price-100/
11. Suehyeon Lee, "Solana Whales Move $49.17 Million of SOL in Apparent Sale," Bloomingbit, Oct. 26, 2026, https://en.bloomingbit.io/feed/news/123003
12. Lookonchain, post on X, Oct. 27, 2026, https://x.com/lookonchain/status/2114895215744143682
13. CoinGecko, "XRP price," Oct. 27, 2026, https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/ripple