Standard Chartered now babysits Ripple's stablecoin in Dubai 🏦✨

Standard Chartered has launched institutional custody services for Ripple USD ($RLUSD) on the XRP Ledger ($XRPL), becoming the first global systemically important bank to safeguard the dollar-pegged stablecoin through a regulated entity in the Middle East. The service, announced Monday, is operated through the bank's Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) branch under oversight from the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA). Eligible institutional clients can now hold $RLUSD within Standard Chartered's digital asset custody infrastructure, the bank confirmed. RLUSD, launched by Ripple in December 2024 on Ethereum and the $XRPL, is backed by U.S. dollars, government bonds and cash equivalents and received the DFSA's approval in June 2025.

The bank said it plans to extend its custody model to institutional trading through a partnership with LMAX Group, a London-based institutional trading venue. Under what Standard Chartered calls a "collateral mirroring" arrangement, clients would be able to post $RLUSD as trading collateral on agreed LMAX products without transferring the tokens to the exchange. The bank said the setup is designed to reduce transfer-related risks and help institutions manage counterparty exposure, since the underlying $RLUSD would remain in custody at Standard Chartered while a mirrored value record is made available to LMAX. Ripple and LMAX Group announced a partnership in January 2026 to expand institutional use of the stablecoin, and Standard Chartered said the additional collateral capabilities remain subject to final documentation, testing, regulatory requirements and internal approvals. The bank did not provide a launch date for the collateral functionality.

"Institutional clients want to participate in digital asset markets without compromising on how their assets are safeguarded or how risk is managed," said Waqar Chaudry, Global Head of Digital Assets at Standard Chartered. He added that the ecosystem must make it easier for clients to hold assets securely, access liquidity and deploy collateral efficiently within trusted frameworks. Standard Chartered's DIFC branch has offered crypto custody since 2024, and in July the bank said it became the first global systemically important bank to let institutions mint and redeem Circle's USDC directly. The British lender is one of 29 banks designated by the Financial Stability Board as globally systemically important, subjecting it to higher capital requirements than peers. Standard Chartered also said earlier this year that it plans to launch institutional crypto custody services in Singapore.