Standard Chartered begins holding Ripple's RLUSD for institutions through its Dubai branch

Standard Chartered did not disclose how much RLUSD it holds or who its clients are ^[8], and it announced no minimum holding, new trading fees or eligibility thresholds ^[9]. The only demand figures in the record belong to the token: the third-quarter addition equals about 32% of the roughly $2.4 billion now in circulation ^[19].

We think custody is the cheaper and more certain half of the plan, because it is live ^[1] and the collateral half is not ^[4]. The mirroring design asks little of LMAX, which only has to recognize a value while the clients' tokens stay with the bank ^[7]. It asks a good deal of an approvals process that the companies say spans the relevant jurisdictions ^[4]. Reserve custody is a separate job: Ripple selected BNY as primary reserve custodian in July 2025 ^[11], so the dollars behind the token sit with a different bank from the one now holding clients' tokens.

The counter-case is that custody is the product. Waqar Chaudry heads digital assets in the bank's securities services unit. "Institutional clients want to participate in digital asset markets without compromising on how their assets are safeguarded or how risk is managed," he said ^[10][14]. An institution that requires a regulated custodian now has a route for the XRP Ledger token. But Standard Chartered said in July that it had become the first globally systemic bank to let institutions mint and redeem Circle's USDC directly ^[13]. USDC's third-quarter addition was larger than RLUSD's ^[16]. A bank custodian does not by itself separate the two tokens.

We would be wrong if approvals leave the LMAX date open-ended, or if the balances turn out small once the bank discloses them. We would also be wrong if RLUSD supply keeps growing at this pace after clients start using the service. That would show demand never depended on the custodian.