Ripple had a busy two days on the infrastructure front. On Oct. 26 the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) granted final approval for Ripple National Trust Bank. On Oct. 27 BNY announced an expanded partnership with Ripple that includes XRP custody, and Robinhood said it will bring Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin to its customers.
Ripple's national trust charter
According to Ripple, the OCC approval lets the new trust bank manage RLUSD reserves, serve as collateral trustee for token holders and provide fiduciary custody for digital assets. Ripple puts RLUSD's market capitalization at about $2.5 billion.
The charter has clear limits. The bank is not a conventional commercial lender and will not offer ordinary deposit accounts or loans. RLUSD issuance stays with a New York-regulated Ripple subsidiary, and BNY remains the stablecoin's primary reserve custodian.
The decision followed a long dispute. Several US banking groups had objected to crypto firms obtaining federal trust charters, while the OCC granted Ripple conditional approval in December 2025.
BNY adds XRP and RLUSD custody
A day later, BNY said its institutional custody platform now supports XRP and RLUSD for eligible clients. Clients are also expected to be able to mint and redeem RLUSD directly through the bank, though no timeline was given for those services.
The same day, Ripple, BNY and working-capital platform C2FO announced plans to test supply-chain financing on the XRP Ledger, using RLUSD to settle approved invoices. The project is still in development, and C2FO's Instant Pay will roll out in limited stages with a waitlist and US-only access at launch.
Custody is not the same as buying. The announcement names no XRP balance held at BNY and no new purchase. If an institution simply moves XRP it already owns from another custodian, the amount held by BNY could rise without any additional market buying.
Robinhood brings RLUSD to millions of users
Robinhood said RLUSD is already live on Robinhood Chain and Bitstamp and is expected in its app before the end of 2026. The platform reported about 28.6 million funded customers at the end of August. Bitstamp will use RLUSD on the XRP Ledger for settlement, Robinhood will adopt Ripple's treasury software, and the companies plan to add perpetual futures trading later this year.
Robinhood also helped launch USDG, a rival stablecoin issued by Paxos. It is unclear how the two tokens will coexist across Robinhood's products, and the company has announced no change to its USDG arrangement.
What to watch next
The news points to a wider RLUSD and custody footprint, but for XRP the key question is incremental demand. RLUSD also exists on Ethereum, where transfers do not require XRP. On the XRP Ledger, XRP still pays fees and covers account reserves, yet institutions can move RLUSD without converting into XRP. Actual XRP balances at custodians and the launch dates of each service will matter more than the announcements themselves.
What it means for traders
The market reaction has been muted. In its Oct. 27 note, XRP traded near $1.25 and was down about 0.5% since midnight UTC, even after the charter news. Analysts quoted in that report said the charter creates no obligation to buy XRP, while XRP funding stood near 0.81 basis points and dollar open interest was up 3.1%.
For futures traders, that suggests leveraged positioning has not tilted sharply to one side, and long-dated infrastructure news often fails to trigger an immediate price shock. If genuine new buying arrives, it could show up as rising funding alongside rising open interest, but that is something to watch rather than a conclusion. The broader market and the Fed meeting remain the main drivers, so XRP moves may owe little to the Ripple story.
Traders can use the position and liquidation price calculator to manage leverage risk, and check the exchange rankings when comparing fees and liquidity for XRP trading.