RLUSD custody goes live at Standard Chartered's DIFC branch

Standard Chartered's custody for Ripple USD (RLUSD) on the XRP Ledger is live as of Oct. 12, 2026, for eligible institutional clients of its Dubai branch. For US holders of RLUSD or XRP, this is news about institutional custody in Dubai. LMAX Group said on Jan. 15, 2026, it would make RLUSD a core collateral asset; nearly nine months later, that step is still a plan. The bank has run collateral mirroring before, as DFSA-regulated custodian in an April 2025 pilot with OKX under Dubai's VARA framework.

The release leaves eligibility undefined and names neither the LMAX products nor a start date. Before the collateral step can begin, it has to clear five conditions:

• final documentation
• successful testing
• compliance with applicable laws and regulations
• internal approvals
• readiness in each jurisdiction

Under LMAX's January plan, clients would reach their RLUSD holdings through LMAX Custody, in segregated wallets. The parties have yet to say how that setup fits with the bank's custody.

The service runs through a DFSA-regulated Dubai branch

The provider is the bank's branch in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA). The announcement carries a Singapore dateline of Oct. 12, 2026. The service itself sits with the Dubai branch.

In a June 2025 release, Ripple said the DFSA had approved RLUSD as a recognized crypto token for use within the DIFC. That recognition also lets other DFSA-licensed firms in the DIFC build RLUSD into their virtual asset services.

The same release describes RLUSD as issued under a New York Department of Financial Services trust company charter and backed 1:1 by US dollars in high-quality liquid assets. It positions the stablecoin for enterprise use, unlike stablecoins aimed mainly at retail users.

LMAX agreed to adopt the bank's mirroring model

Luke Dorney, head of custody for digital assets at LMAX Group, said in the October release that LMAX has agreed to adopt the bank's collateral mirroring model. At LMAX, the model is part of the planned collateral step.

In an April 2025 release, the bank and OKX announced a collateral mirroring program for institutional clients. It let them post cryptocurrencies and tokenized money market funds as off-exchange collateral for trading. OKX's entity regulated by Dubai's Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA) managed the collateral in that pilot.

Standard Chartered and Ripple expect the arrangement to give institutional clients more flexibility. Other expected gains are lower transfer-related operational risk, better-managed counterparty exposure and more efficient use of capital. Counterparty exposure is what a client stands to lose if the other side of a trade fails.

RLUSD collateral, planned since Jan. 15, has no date

LMAX Group and Ripple announced a multi-year strategic partnership on Jan. 15, 2026, in an LMAX Group release. The collateral plan covered LMAX's institutional trading in spot crypto, perpetual futures and contracts for difference (CFDs). Ripple is to provide $150 million in financing for LMAX's long-term cross-asset growth strategy.

In a collaboration announced in July 2026, Standard Chartered and LMAX carried out digital asset prime brokerage trades. The bank calls them the industry's first live trades of this kind. In a September 2026 release, the bank announced its appointment as LMAX Group's digital asset custodian. That role runs through its DIFC branch and Standard Chartered Luxembourg S.A.

LMAX was the first client of the bank's Luxembourg custody platform after the bank's June 2026 authorization under MiCA. MiCA is the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation. The same release lists off-exchange custody solutions as an area the two firms are exploring.

Custody for RLUSD on the XRP Ledger already runs for eligible institutions at the bank's DIFC branch. Collateral at LMAX stays a plan; the release gives no start date and says further details will be announced as implementation progresses.