On October 12, 2026, Standard Chartered announced the opening of an institutional custody service for RLUSD, the dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Ripple, in its version available on the XRP Ledger. On the same day, the bank presented a second arrangement, prepared with Ripple and LMAX Group, that would allow this stablecoin to be used as trading collateral. The two announcements are not at the same stage, however: the first is operational, while the second remains a project with no launch date.
What has launched: custody in Dubai
According to the bank’s press release, reported by Journal du Coin, the custody service is already available. Eligible clients can entrust their RLUSD issued on the XRP Ledger to Standard Chartered’s branch at the Dubai International Financial Centre, supervised by the Dubai Financial Services Authority. At this stage, the service is therefore not offered in all the jurisdictions where the bank operates.
Institutional custody means entrusting a provider with safekeeping assets and securely managing access to them. It is aimed at companies and professional investors who wish to hold tokens within a framework compatible with their internal procedures, rather than managing the keys themselves.
RLUSD, launched in December 2024, targets a peg of one dollar per token. According to the source, its reserves consist notably of dollar deposits, US Treasury securities and cash equivalents. The article specifies neither the amount of these reserves nor the volume of RLUSD in circulation, so these figures cannot be given here.
This offering is part of a broader geographic expansion. On October 8, 2026, the bank had announced that it was preparing a custody service in Singapore for certain crypto-assets, stablecoins and tokenized assets. This project would complement its presence in the United Arab Emirates, Luxembourg and Hong Kong, subject to local regulatory requirements. Switzerland does not appear on this list.
What remains a project: RLUSD as collateral at LMAX
The second part concerns the use of the assets held in custody. Standard Chartered, Ripple and LMAX Group are preparing a “collateral mirroring” mechanism: LMAX would recognize the value of eligible RLUSD held with the bank, which would allow certain clients to use them as collateral for specified trading products, without transferring the tokens to the platform.
The partners expect it to reduce operational risks linked to transfers and to make capital management more efficient. These are expected benefits, not measured results. And the arrangement does not eliminate the risks inherent in trading.
Above all, it is not yet open. According to the source, the partners still have to finalize the documentation, pass the tests and obtain the necessary approvals. No launch date has been announced, and at this stage there is no guarantee that the service will see the light of day in the form described.
This partnership extends an agreement announced in January 2026 between Ripple and LMAX. At the time, Ripple committed to providing 150 million dollars in financing to support the group’s development, with RLUSD being integrated into its institutional settlement and collateral activities.
Banks and stablecoins: how does it look from Switzerland?
The announcement illustrates a trend: major banks are no longer content to watch stablecoins from the sidelines; they are offering to hold them in custody and seeking to integrate them into broader financial operations, such as collateral management. The stablecoin then becomes an asset that is held and put to use, beyond the simple transfer of digital dollars.
In Switzerland, a financial centre where banks and crypto-asset players work side by side, this development raises fundamental questions about the place of stablecoins in the banking system. One distinction of principle is worth keeping in mind: holding a stablecoin on behalf of a client, guaranteeing its value or accepting it as collateral are different activities, which do not entail the same requirements. The Standard Chartered case falls, for now, into the first category.
For Swiss players, the interest of the announcement lies less in its direct effect, since the service is attached to Dubai, than in the model it outlines: a bank as custodian of digital assets, connected to a trading platform through a mechanism for recognizing collateral. It remains to be seen whether the part still in the project stage will get through the announced testing and approval steps.
