Crypto firm Ripple Labs is applying for a banking license in the US, following a similar move by stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Group as crypto firms look to be regulated to deepen ties with traditional finance.
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 follows Circle on wanting bank charter
Ripple’s decision to get a banking license came just two days after Circle, which issues the second-largest stablecoin USDC ,applied to the OCCto create a national trust bank that would oversee its stablecoin reserves.
The move by both firms comes as the US Senate passed a stablecoin regulating bill called the GENIUS Act, which lays out standards for offering the US dollar-pegged tokens, including that the OCC will oversee larger stablecoin issuers.
Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire said the company was taking “proactive steps” to “align with emerging US regulation for the issuance and operation of dollar-denominated payment stablecoins.”
Anchorage Digital is the only crypto firm that holds a national bank charter.
Ripple bids for Fed master account
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.