Ripple Applies For US Banking License

Ripple Labs is applying for a U.S. national bank charter and a Federal Reserve master account, 'following a similar move by stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Group as crypto firms look to be regulated to deepen ties with traditional finance,' reports CoinTelegraph. From the report: Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse confirmed on X on Wednesday that the company is applying for a license with the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), following an earlier report by The Wall Street Journal. 'True to our long-standing compliance roots, Ripple is applying for a national bank charter from the OCC,' he wrote. Garlinghouse said if the license is approved, it would be a 'new (and unique!) benchmark for trust in the stablecoin market' as the firm would be under federal and state oversight -- with the New York Department of Financial Services already regulating its Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin.

Ripple's Garlinghouse added that the company also applied for a Master Account with the Federal Reserve, which would give it access to the US central banking system. 'This access would allow us to hold $RLUSD reserves directly with the Fed and provide an additional layer of security to future proof trust in RLUSD,' Garlinghouse said. 'Congress is working towards clear rules and regulations, and banks (in a far cry from the years of Operation Chokepoint 2.0) are leaning in,' he added, mentioning the conspiracy that the Biden administration sought to cut off crypto from the financial system. Ripple applied for the account through Standard Custody, a crypto custody firm it acquired in February 2024.

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