Oct 12, 2026, 8:09 a.m. EDT
2 min read
Summary
- Standard Chartered’s Dubai branch now offers regulated institutional custody of Ripple’s dollar-pegged RLUSD stablecoin on the XRP Ledger.
- The bank and LMAX Group plan to let clients use RLUSD held at Standard Chartered as trading collateral without transferring it to the venue, subject to testing, regulatory requirements and approvals.
- The arrangement advances Ripple’s effort to establish RLUSD as an institutional settlement and collateral asset while expanding Standard Chartered’s digital-asset custody business.
International banking institution Standard Chartered currently delivers institutional custody for Ripple’s dollar-backed stablecoin RLUSD on the XRP Ledger through its Dubai office, supplying qualified customers with a regulated banking institution to safeguard the stablecoin tied to the U.S. dollar.
The financial institution, managing close to $450 billion in assets, also intends to collaborate with Ripple and LMAX Group, an institutional execution venue for digital assets and foreign exchange, so that customers can leverage RLUSD stored at Standard Chartered as margin for trading activities on the LMAX network. That phase of the partnership is not yet operational and remains contingent upon paperwork, trials, regulatory standards, and internal clearances, the banking entity mentioned on Monday via email.
LMAX targets allowing users to utilize RLUSD maintained at Standard Chartered to secure positions, meaning they would not have to move the stablecoin directly to the platform.
This mechanism could attract investment funds, banks, and additional institutions wishing to execute trades involving stablecoins without leaving their capital at an exchange platform. It divides safekeeping from order fulfillment: the financial institution retains the digital tokens while the trading platform accepts their monetary worth as margin backing.
“Regulated custody connected to a global systemically important bank is becoming one of the most valuable pieces of infrastructure in digital assets,” expressed Joseph Goh, head of Asia-Pacific at the Singapore-based digital asset investment bank Areta.
Waqar Chaudry, global head of digital assets, securities services, and transaction services at Standard Chartered, noted that “institutional clients want to participate in digital asset markets without compromising on how their assets are safeguarded or how risk is managed.”
This initiative builds upon Ripple’s objective to position RLUSD as a settlement and collateral asset for institutional players. Ripple supplied LMAX with $150 million in funding back in January as part of strategies to integrate the stablecoin within the enterprise infrastructure, including support for institutional trading operations.
The LMAX connection, assuming its completion, would grant RLUSD another pathway into the margin mechanisms underlying institutional trading, rather than restricting the digital currency solely to payments or spot market clearing.
Standard Chartered has been growing its custody operations across multiple financial hubs. Last week, the institution indicated plans to supply institutional customers in Singapore with safekeeping options for selected crypto assets, stablecoins, and tokenized real-world assets, following its full acquisition of Zodia Custody earlier in the year. Furthermore, it became the initial bank to distribute one of Hong Kong’s pair of regulated stablecoins during August.
Originally published at https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/10/12/standard-chartered-offers-rlusd-custody-in-dubai-and-plans-lmax-collateral-link.
