Ripple received conditional approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish Ripple National Trust Bank, placing RLUSD reserves under federal oversight alongside NYDFS supervision as the stablecoin nears a $1.3B market cap.

The OCC's conditional nod, granted in mid-December 2025, allows Ripple to establish a national trust bank under federal scrutiny, with RLUSD reserves managed within this entity. This structure subjects the stablecoin to both OCC and NYDFS oversight, enhancing trust for institutional users. Ripple joins a select group of crypto firms, including Circle, Paxos, BitGo, and Fidelity, that received similar approvals, signaling a broader regulatory embrace of digital assets.

Complementing this regulatory foundation, RLUSD is expanding its reach through a partnership with Wormhole, leveraging the platform's Native Token Transfer (NTT) standard for seamless multichain functionality. Initially issued on the XRP Ledger and Ethereum, RLUSD is now extending to Ethereum Layer-2 networks such as Optimism, Base, Ink, and Unichain. The NTT technology enables native cross-chain transfers, preserving the stablecoin's peg and issuer control without relying on wrapped or synthetic versions.

This integration opens up new avenues for businesses and developers, allowing RLUSD to be used alongside XRP in applications like trading, payments, lending, and yield generation. By facilitating efficient liquidity movement across ecosystems, the expansion aims to boost scalability and interoperability in decentralized finance (DeFi). Ripple's strategy emphasizes a multichain future, with plans to launch on additional blockchains in 2026, pending further regulatory clearances.