Standard Chartered launched institutional custody services for Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin on the XRP Ledger via its Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) branch, regulated by the DFSA. The bank is also preparing a separate arrangement with Ripple and LMAX Group to allow clients to use RLUSD as trading collateral without moving it from custody. Meanwhile, Tether froze approximately USD 1.45 million in USDT linked to THORChain by blacklisting four vault addresses on the TRON network on October 9. In Russia, Sberbank began testing cryptocurrency operations, including buying, selling, and withdrawals, within its mobile app following its admission as a digital depository; broader access is planned for December 1, subject to regulatory framework effectiveness. Additionally, Glassnode co-founder Rafael Schultze-Kraft estimated that 6.26 million BTC (31.2% of supply) sits in addresses with exposed public keys, highlighting potential cryptographic risks.
The integration of RLUSD into Standard Chartered’s regulated custody infrastructure marks a significant step toward bridging traditional finance with crypto-native assets. By offering collateral services through partnerships with Ripple and LMAX Group, the bank is addressing institutional needs for liquidity management while maintaining strict compliance standards under DFSA regulation. This move signals growing confidence among major financial institutions in adopting specific stablecoins for operational use cases beyond simple holding.
Conversely, the freezing of THORChain-linked USDT by Tether underscores the persistent centralization risks inherent in stablecoin ecosystems. While the reason for the freeze was not explicitly stated in the source, the action demonstrates the issuer's ability to unilaterally impact decentralized protocols' liquidity pools. This incident highlights the tension between permissionless DeFi architectures and the regulatory or security-driven controls exercised by centralized stablecoin issuers, potentially prompting further scrutiny of counterparty risk in cross-chain swaps.
