On 12 October 2026, Standard Chartered launched institutional custody for Ripple USD ($RLUSD) issued on XRPL. The live service is available to eligible clients through Standard Chartered Bank’s Dubai International Financial Centre branch, which the Dubai Financial Services Authority regulates.
The bank is also working with Ripple and LMAX Group on a separate collateral integration. The parties intend to make $RLUSD eligible collateral for agreed LMAX products and services and extend Standard Chartered’s collateral mirroring model to LMAX. That part is not live. It still depends on final documents, successful testing, applicable laws and regulations, internal approvals and readiness in each jurisdiction.
Custody is live, collateral mirroring is planned
The announcement describes two related services at different stages. Eligible institutional clients can now place XRPL-issued $RLUSD in Standard Chartered’s custody infrastructure. The planned LMAX arrangement would then reflect the value of eligible collateral to the trading venue while the underlying tokens remain with the custodian.
The operating sequence is important. A client first needs access to Standard Chartered’s institutional custody service through the DIFC branch. Custodied $RLUSD does not automatically become LMAX collateral under the announcement. The parties must finish the separate integration, define the agreed products, complete testing and obtain the required internal and regulatory approvals. Only then could the mirroring model connect a custody position to an eligible LMAX use.
The asset movement described by the bank is equally specific. Standard Chartered would hold the underlying $RLUSD. LMAX would receive a mirrored value for collateral purposes rather than the tokens themselves. The release presents that structure as a way to limit transfers to the venue, not as a transfer of custody to LMAX. Institutions evaluating the service therefore have two decisions: whether the DIFC custody arrangement meets their requirements now, and whether the later collateral terms suit a particular LMAX product once the parties publish them.
That distinction matters for how an institution moves assets. Under the proposed model, a client would not need to transfer the underlying $RLUSD directly to LMAX for its value to count as eligible collateral. Standard Chartered expects this setup to give clients more flexibility over how they hold and deploy digital assets for trading. The bank also expects fewer transfer-related operational risks, more control over counterparty exposure and better capital efficiency. These are expected benefits in the announcement, not results from a live LMAX integration.
Standard Chartered calls this the next phase of its work with Ripple and LMAX. The operating framework would combine the bank’s custody capabilities with LMAX’s institutional market infrastructure. Its stated scope is limited to agreed LMAX products and solutions across trading and collateral management. The announcement does not identify those products.
Waqar Chaudry, Standard Chartered’s global head of digital assets for Securities Services and Transaction Services, said institutional clients want market access without compromising asset safeguards or risk management. He said the combined setup should make it easier for clients to hold assets securely, access liquidity and deploy collateral within trusted frameworks.
LMAX Group’s head of digital asset custody, Luke Dorney, said adopting the bank’s collateral mirroring model would give clients more flexibility in holding and deploying $RLUSD across the group’s cross-asset marketplace. Ripple stablecoins head Jack McDonald described the combination of XRPL-issued $RLUSD, bank custody and LMAX trading infrastructure as a path for institutions to use stablecoins across global markets.
The supply behind the service
The DefiLlama stablecoin API snapshot used for this article put circulating $RLUSD at about $2.44 billion. About $1.14 billion was issued on XRPL and $1.30 billion on Ethereum. The custody announcement applies specifically to the XRPL-issued asset.
That chain split sets the immediate boundary for users. Standard Chartered did not announce custody for Ethereum-issued $RLUSD in this release. Eligible clients therefore need to confirm which issuance network they hold before treating the new service as available for their position.
The XRPL portion can move between institutional counterparties and through trading and collateral workflows on the public ledger, according to the bank’s description. The announcement characterizes XRPL as infrastructure for fast, low-cost settlement. It does not say that Standard Chartered or LMAX will support every XRPL function or every holder. Access remains restricted to eligible institutional custody clients.
What institutions can use now
The practical change today is a regulated bank custody route for XRPL-issued $RLUSD through the DIFC branch. Institutions that meet Standard Chartered’s eligibility requirements can use the bank’s digital asset custody infrastructure instead of moving the asset directly to a trading venue merely to hold it there.
The practical change for trading comes later. If the parties complete the integration, clients could keep eligible $RLUSD with Standard Chartered while LMAX recognizes its mirrored value for agreed products. The underlying tokens would not need to move to LMAX under the described design. This could reduce the operational steps involved in moving collateral, but the benefit remains conditional until testing and approvals are complete. Until then, an institution cannot treat a custodied balance as collateral at LMAX merely because both firms have announced the plan. The release keeps current custody access and future trading utility as separate capabilities with separate readiness conditions.
The conditions also define the risk boundary. Final documentation will determine the contractual rights around the mirrored collateral. Applicable regulation and jurisdictional readiness will determine where the service can operate. Internal approval and successful testing remain prerequisites, so custody availability does not mean the collateral service is approved or usable.
The open question is the final scope of the LMAX connection. Standard Chartered has not named the eligible products, supported jurisdictions or an implementation date. The bank said it will announce more details as implementation progresses.
