Ripple’s effort to establish a federally regulated trust bank is drawing renewed attention as the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, or OCC (U.S. bank charter regulator), seeks to make national charter applications more accessible to new entrants, including digital-asset companies. Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould said the OCC wants to reverse a prolonged decline in new bank formations and create a clearer route for companies seeking federal charters. The OCC received 40 de novo applications over the past 18 months, including national trust bank filings, and in many cases issued decisions within 120 days of receiving complete applications. A full-service national bank also recently received final approval and opened for the first time in five years. Ripple National Trust Bank received preliminary conditional approval in December 2025 alongside applications involving Circle, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos, but must still complete the OCC’s pre-opening requirements before final authorization. The proposed bank is expected to focus on institutional custody, settlement and trust services rather than retail checking or traditional lending. Ripple was still addressing the remaining requirements by March. The OCC’s December decision covered five digital-asset companies, and World Liberty Financial recently received conditional approval for World Liberty Trust Company, which plans to support its USD1 stablecoin (cryptocurrency designed to track a stable value) business if it satisfies outstanding conditions. RLUSD recently surpassed $2 billion in market capitalization, increasing the strategic importance of regulated custody, reserve management and institutional settlement infrastructure for Ripple. The company could benefit from greater federal oversight of digital-asset activities, although applicants remain subject to capital, governance, compliance, risk-management and operational requirements. Gould’s position that legally permissible digital-asset businesses should have a route to national banking places Ripple’s pending application within a broader shift in U.S. crypto regulation.