BNY Mellon to custody dollar reserves for Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin

Ripple has selected the Bank of New York Mellon to hold U.S. dollar cash and Treasury bills backing its RLUSD stablecoin, providing the seven-month-old token with a blue-chip banking partner as it scales past $500 million in circulation, according to a Wednesday announcement.

BNY, one of America’s largest custody banks with about $52 trillion in assets under administration, will provide safekeeping and aid liquidity management for the reserves that collateralize every RLUSD in circulation. The move aims to ensure holders can redeem the token 1-for-1 for dollars under the same controls that govern traditional money-market funds. RLUSD's custody at BNY is possible after the bank opened its doors to institutional crypto clients in 2022, after debuting its dedicated digital assets unit in 2021.

Ripple launched RLUSD, its dollar-backed stablecoin, in late December 2024 on both XRP Ledger and Ethereum. The coin topped half a billion dollars in circulation this week as the $260 billion stablecoin has attracted regulatory support and institutional adoption. Lawmakers are advancing bipartisan legislation that would set federal standards for reserve backing and disclosures—requirements that Ripple says RLUSD will meet. Multinationals like Amazon and Walmart, as well as major banks, have reportedly considered entering the booming stablecoin ecosystem.

Meanwhile, Ripple has applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a national trust-bank charter, a license that would let it issue RLUSD under federal banking rules and hold customer deposits directly.