In short
- If you hold XRP, you may hear that the banks are coming. In October 2026, banks took real, dated steps with XRP and RLUSD, mostly about keeping assets safe for clients, called custody.
- BNY says it now supports XRP and RLUSD on its custody platform. Standard Chartered offers custody of RLUSD through its Dubai branch.
- A US bank, Cross River, says it has built RLUSD on the XRP Ledger into its banking systems for business customers in some states.
- Ripple says the OCC, the US regulator of national banks, has given final approval for its own national trust bank. It has not yet opened.
Hearing that “the banks are coming”?
If you hold some XRP, or you are thinking about it, you have probably heard that the big banks are moving in. Some of that talk is true. Some of it runs ahead of what has happened. This article sticks to what each bank or company has said in its own release, and when.
First, what custody means
Custody means keeping an asset safe on someone else’s behalf. For shares, it has long been a quiet job done by large banks. For digital assets, it means holding the keys that control them, so the client does not have to.
When a bank offers custody of a digital asset, it is saying it will hold that asset for its clients. It is not the same as the bank buying the asset for itself, or recommending it.
Who has done what
| Date | Who | What they said |
|---|---|---|
| 12 Oct 2026 | Standard Chartered | RLUSD custody live, Dubai branch only |
| 15 Oct 2026 | Cross River | RLUSD on the XRP Ledger in its systems |
| 26 Oct 2026 | Ripple | Says its trust bank has final approval |
| 27 Oct 2026 | BNY | Supports XRP and RLUSD in custody |
In order: on 12 October, Standard Chartered said its custody of RLUSD was live through its branch in Dubai’s financial centre. On 15 October, Cross River, a US bank, said it had built RLUSD on the XRP Ledger into its core banking systems for business customers. On 26 October, Ripple said its national trust bank had been given final approval. On 27 October, BNY said it now supports XRP and RLUSD on its digital asset custody platform.
RLUSD is Ripple’s US dollar stablecoin, a digital token designed to hold a steady value of one US dollar. The XRP Ledger is the network it runs on. XRP is the ledger’s own digital asset.
BNY
BNY is a large US bank that looks after assets for institutions. On 27 October 2026 it said it “now supports XRP, the native digital asset of the XRP Ledger, and RLUSD on its Digital Asset Custody platform”.
BNY also said it intends to support more assets on the XRP Ledger. It said clients minting and redeeming RLUSD through BNY is a plan, subject to final BNY and regulatory approvals. So custody is live, and the rest is still a plan.
BNY says it oversees US$63.4 trillion in assets under custody or administration, as at 30 September 2026. That is money it looks after for others, not money it owns, and not money moved onto any ledger.
Standard Chartered
On 12 October 2026, Standard Chartered said its custody of RLUSD for institutions was live through its DIFC branch, the Dubai International Financial Centre. It also said it intends to join a link with Ripple and LMAX Group that would let RLUSD be used as collateral. That link is planned, subject to documents and testing. The release is about RLUSD, not XRP, and about Dubai, not other branches.
Cross River
On 15 October 2026, Cross River, a US bank, said it had built RLUSD on the XRP Ledger into its core banking systems for business customers. Its services are only available in some US states, which it did not name. The release says nothing about XRP itself.
Ripple’s own trust bank
On 26 October 2026, Ripple said it had been granted final approval to charter Ripple National Trust Bank by the OCC, the US regulator of national banks. Ripple says the trust bank will hold RLUSD’s reserves and, once open, will be allowed to offer custody of digital assets. The OCC’s own release on the final approval had not been found when last checked, on 29 October 2026. There is no opening date yet.
The first step was public. On 12 December 2025, the OCC gave conditional approval to five national trust bank applications, Ripple’s among them.
What this means for you in Australia
None of these steps is a change to Australian rules. They show large institutions building the plumbing to hold XRP and RLUSD safely. That is a different thing from a price.
Australia is setting its own rules for this plumbing. A law that received assent in April 2026, the Corporations Amendment (Digital Assets Framework) Act 2026, makes digital asset platforms and tokenised custody platforms financial products, with some exceptions. It starts 12 months after assent: the Act’s own table gives 8 April 2027, and ASIC gives 9 April 2027. Until then, it is passed but not yet in force.
If you hold digital assets today, one useful question is simply: who holds my keys, and what happens to my assets if they fail?
My view
In my view, the XRP Ledger is the technology best placed to carry much of this work. That’s an opinion, not a forecast, and you don’t have to agree with it.
One easy next step
If you would like plain explainers like this one as they come out, the free lessons by email will look at the XRP Ledger, stablecoins and tokenisation in short, dated pieces. All you need is your first name and email.
Nicholas holds some of the assets discussed in this article.
Education only, not personal or financial advice.