What is really in Ripple's request to obtain, through its subsidiary, a banking license in the USA? Now there are public documents to check, verify, or even just read. We will thus be able to understand the details of an operation that actually replicates that of Circle – the company that manages USDC.
It will not be a traditional bank: it will not receive deposits, it will not manage direct clients, it will serve almost exclusively for RLUSD, the stablecoin launched by Ripple at the end of 2024 and which is trying to carve out a space that is crowded but also has great prospects.
What is Ripple doing? Why does it want a bank?
It will be a license of the lowest level of the complex banking system of the USA. It will not be a license that guarantees immediate affiliation with the Federal Reserve and will be obtained mainly for one purpose:
Ripple issues a dollar-pegged stablecoin – RLUSD or Ripple USD – through its subsidiary Standard Custody & Trust Company. Once it obtains the Trust Bank license [Ripple's bank, ed.] it will conduct activities complementary to Ripple's stablecoin and for other payment businesses, including the management of stablecoin reserves.
This is what is directly read from the request for the license that Ripple sent to OCC, which is the relevant federal office for this type of practice.
There will be no lending activities, no deposits from clients, and more generally, none of what we are used to finding in a traditional banking institution.
Ripple itself has chosen to issue RLUSD also on the Ethereum network, a signal of a business that aims to become something bigger than what currently exists on XRPL, Ripple's own ledger.
There will also be the listings of Kraken and Gemini, along with that of BitGo. Tron Inc., led by Justin Sun, at the head of the namesake crypto network, has also gone public.
