This Week on the Ledger

Three developments this week moved XRP Ledger activity closer to regulated financial infrastructure. On October 26, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) gave Ripple final approval to open a national trust bank that will hold the reserves behind its RLUSD stablecoin. In Ottawa, the Department of Finance published draft Stablecoin Regulations on October 24 that set out how the Bank of Canada will supervise fiat-backed stablecoin issuers, opening a 60-day comment period. Aviva Investors also launched a second tokenized money market fund share class on XRPL, while developers proposed changes that would tighten how issuers control who may hold restricted tokens.

Stablecoin Infrastructure: RLUSD Gains a Federal Trust Bank and Wider Distribution

Ripple announced on October 26 that the OCC granted final approval for Ripple National Trust Bank, following conditional approval in December 2025. The bank will manage the segregated reserves backing RLUSD, act as collateral trustee for those reserves on behalf of RLUSD holders, and offer fiduciary digital asset custody once it opens. Standard Custody & Trust Company, which is regulated by the New York Department of Financial Services, remains the RLUSD issuer. The practical effect is a second layer of supervision: the issuer stays under state oversight, while the entity holding the reserves for holders answers to a federal bank regulator. Ripple said it will continue working with the OCC and NYDFS as the bank begins operations and as the United States implements the GENIUS Act framework.

Three distribution and custody agreements announced during Ripple’s Swell conference in New York extend where RLUSD can be held and settled:

• BNY (October 27). BNY now supports XRP and RLUSD on its Digital Asset Custody platform for eligible institutional clients. The two firms plan to let BNY clients mint and redeem RLUSD directly through BNY and to extend support to tokenized assets issued on XRPL, both subject to final BNY and regulatory approvals.
• Robinhood (October 27). RLUSD is live on Robinhood Chain and Bitstamp by Robinhood and is expected in the Robinhood app later this year. Robinhood plans to use RLUSD on XRPL for settlement in Bitstamp’s institutional business and will adopt Ripple Treasury for its global treasury operations.
• Coinbase (October 28). Retail and institutional clients can trade and manage RLUSD through Coinbase Prime, Coinbase Exchange and the Coinbase app, with deposits and withdrawals supported on XRPL, Base and Ethereum.

Regulatory Clarity: Ottawa Publishes Draft Stablecoin Regulations

The Department of Finance published the proposed Stablecoin Regulations in the Canada Gazette, Part I, on October 24, 2026. The regulations would implement the Stablecoin Act, which was enacted earlier this year, and the stated intention is for them to come into force in fall 2027. Comments are due within 60 days of publication, which places the deadline around December 23.

Under the draft, the Bank of Canada would register and supervise issuers, issue guidelines and enforce compliance, including through administrative monetary penalties. Issuers would have to hold reserves denominated in the stablecoin’s reference currency with a market value at least equal to the outstanding supply at the end of each day. Eligible reserve assets are limited to cash and demand deposits, government debt maturing in three months or less, one-day reverse repurchase agreements and money market funds holding only eligible assets. Redemptions would have to be completed within three business days of a request, with fees capped at 1% of the amount redeemed. Issuers could not pay interest or yield tied to holding a stablecoin, although rewards tied to using one would be permitted. Prudentially regulated institutions, including banks and credit unions, fall outside the framework.

Institutional Tokenization: New Funds, Receivables and Tighter Holder Controls

Aviva Investors launched a tokenized share class of its Sterling Liquidity Fund on XRPL on October 26. The fund is an Ireland-domiciled UCITS money market fund of approximately £22 billion, and Aviva has invested £50 million in the new share class. It uses a digital twin model in which holdings are represented on XRPL while the fund continues to operate off-chain, with BNY Mellon as custodian. This is Aviva’s second tokenized fund on the ledger, following a USD Liquidity Fund share class in July.

On October 27, C2FO and Ripple announced plans to move the financing and settlement behind C2FO Instant Pay onto XRPL, with settlement in RLUSD. Capital providers would fund early payments to suppliers, which would settle on XRPL in seconds rather than days, while invoice terms and due dates stay unchanged. The initiative is at the waitlist stage, and BNY has said it will explore the program as the first step in its tokenized trade finance work with Ripple.

Regulated products of this kind depend on issuers being able to restrict who holds their tokens. Developers have proposed an amendment, fixCleanup3_5_0, that would close remaining gaps in that control. One change in the series, opened on October 27, would stop unauthorized trust lines from receiving tokens even when they already hold a balance; the previous check applied only when the balance was exactly zero. Related changes would require authorization for both assets in an AMM pool before an account can acquire its LP tokens and would add an invariant that enforces the rule across features. Unauthorized holders could still send tokens back to the issuer. The XRP Ledger Foundation told CoinDesk on October 30 that no users were affected and described the work as routine hardening. The amendment is not merged and would need support from more than 80% of trusted validators for two weeks to activate.