Standard Chartered has launched institutional custody for Ripple USD, or RLUSD, on the XRP Ledger through its Dubai International Financial Centre branch, giving eligible institutional clients a bank-operated place to hold the dollar-pegged stablecoin.
The bank said on October 12 that the custody service is now live through its DFSA-regulated DIFC branch. The announcement is another example of traditional financial institutions building regulated digital-asset infrastructure, a trend BitcoinVersus.Tech has also tracked through the SEC’s proposed crypto custody rulebook.
The more ambitious part is not live yet. Standard Chartered, Ripple and LMAX Group are working on a collateral-mirroring arrangement that would let institutions use eligible RLUSD as trading collateral at LMAX while the underlying tokens remain in custody at the bank. The parties said that step still depends on final documentation, successful testing, applicable regulations, internal approvals and jurisdictional readiness.
That distinction matters. The custody service exists today; the LMAX collateral connection is a planned capability. The Block independently reported the same split and noted that no launch date has been announced for the collateral phase.
RLUSD runs on the XRP Ledger, whose infrastructure received fresh attention this week after developers fixed a bug that could have allowed XRP to be minted improperly. The stablecoin push also fits a broader shift toward regulated tokenized dollars, including Circle’s New York trust charter and other efforts to connect stablecoins to conventional banking rails.
Ripple launched RLUSD in late 2024 as an enterprise-focused stablecoin. The launch does not prove that institutions will immediately move large balances into RLUSD, and it does not directly imply higher demand for XRP. What changed on October 12 is narrower but concrete: eligible clients can now hold RLUSD through Standard Chartered’s regulated Dubai custody infrastructure. The next test is whether the planned collateral model reaches production and attracts measurable institutional use.
BitcoinVersus.Tech is not a financial advisor. This media platform reports on financial subjects purely for informational purposes.
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