(SEO): FINMA-regulated AMINA Bank becomes the first European bank to go live with Ripple Payments, bridging fiat and stablecoin rails—while Ripple also notches major U.S. regulatory momentum.
Published: December 12, 2025
Ripple has landed a milestone in Europe’s regulated banking sector: Switzerland-based AMINA Bank AG has gone live with Ripple Payments, making it the first European bank to deploy Ripple’s “licensed end-to-end payments solution” in production. The move is designed to help AMINA’s clients—particularly crypto-native businesses—send cross-border payments near real time while reducing the friction between blockchain operations and traditional correspondent banking rails. [1]
The announcement also lands on a day when Ripple is dominating headlines on the regulatory front in the U.S., after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) confirmed it has conditionally approved Ripple National Trust Bank—part of a broader set of approvals for crypto-focused trust bank charters. [2]
Key points (for readers skimming Google Discover)
- AMINA Bank is live on Ripple Payments, the first European bank to do so. [3]
- The integration aims to support cross-border payments across fiat and stablecoin rails, including Ripple’s RLUSD and “other stablecoins.” [4]
- Ripple says Ripple Payments has global coverage representing 90%+ of daily FX markets and has processed $95B+ in volume (as described in today’s Ripple materials). [5]
- Separately, the OCC conditionally approved Ripple National Trust Bank, a development also covered by Reuters and confirmed by the OCC. [6]
- As of Dec. 12, 2025, XRP traded around $2.00 (price snapshots vary by venue and timing). [7]
What exactly happened: AMINA Bank goes live on Ripple Payments
In a press release dated Dec. 12, 2025, Ripple said it has signed a new partnership with AMINA Bank AG to support near real-time cross-border payments for AMINA’s clients using Ripple Payments. Ripple described AMINA as a FINMA-regulated crypto bank with global reach, and emphasized that AMINA is the first European bank to use Ripple’s licensed, end-to-end payments solution. [8]
The business problem both firms are targeting is familiar across the digital-asset industry: many crypto businesses can move value quickly on-chain, but still hit bottlenecks when they must interact with traditional banking infrastructure—especially when payments need to move across borders, currencies, and compliance requirements.
AMINA’s Chief Product Officer, Myles Harrison, framed it as a “rails” mismatch—where clients increasingly need systems that can support fiat and stablecoins simultaneously, but traditional correspondent banking networks weren’t designed for that. [9]
Ripple’s message is that integrating Ripple Payments directly into AMINA’s existing banking rails is meant to reduce that friction: clients should be able to move funds and settle transactions more efficiently, with faster settlement and improved transparency versus legacy-only routes. [10]
Why this is a “first” that matters in Europe
Europe has plenty of crypto activity—but “crypto-friendly” and “bank-integrated, regulated, live payments infrastructure” are two different things.
Ripple is positioning this as a shift from experimentation to deployment: a regulated bank in Europe is now running Ripple Payments live, not just exploring it in a pilot or sandbox. [11]
And AMINA isn’t a newly formed entity with a single jurisdictional footprint. In Ripple’s release, the bank’s regulatory profile spans multiple hubs, including:
- Switzerland: Swiss Banking and Securities Dealer License via FINMA (noted by Ripple and AMINA) [12]
- Abu Dhabi Global Market: FSRA permission (as described in Ripple’s release) [13]
- Hong Kong: SFC licensing with later approval to include digital asset dealing services for professional investors (as described in Ripple’s release) [14]
- Austria / EU: a CASP license under MiCAR (as described in Ripple’s release) [15]
That combination is part of what makes today’s announcement notable: Ripple isn’t claiming a “crypto firm partnership” in the abstract; it’s pointing to a bank with regulated operations and an institutional client base.
The RLUSD connection: this deal builds on an earlier “first”
Today’s payments announcement also extends an existing relationship between the companies built around Ripple’s stablecoin, Ripple USD (RLUSD).
Ripple says AMINA previously became the first bank globally to support RLUSD, offering custody and trading services for clients holding the stablecoin. [16]
AMINA’s own press release from July 3, 2025 described its RLUSD move similarly—saying it would provide custody and trading for RLUSD at launch and positioning the stablecoin as a regulated, institution-focused instrument. [17]
In today’s Ripple statement, Ripple’s UK & Europe Managing Director Cassie Craddock explicitly tied the payments rollout to stablecoin utility—saying the integration can provide access to “seamless payments” using RLUSD and other stablecoins, plus rapid payouts in multiple currencies. [18]
For observers watching stablecoins move from “crypto trading pairs” into “enterprise treasury and settlement tooling,” this pairing—stablecoin custody/trading first, then payments rail integration—is a logical path to broader institutional usage.
How big is Ripple Payments today?
Ripple is also using the AMINA news to reinforce scale claims around its payments infrastructure.
In Ripple’s own materials about the partnership, the company says Ripple Payments has global coverage representing more than 90% of daily FX markets and has processed more than $95 billion in volume, with licensed availability across multiple jurisdictions (including Switzerland). [19]
Ripple reiterated similar metrics in a separate Business Wire announcement about its U.S. trust bank charter, again highlighting 90%+ FX market reach and $95B+ processed. [20]
As always, the practical question for markets is not only the “coverage” claim—it’s what volume is actually flowing through specific corridors, and how much is attributable to any one institution. CCN noted AMINA and Ripple did not disclose transaction volumes or corridors in the initial rollout coverage. [21]
The other major Ripple headline today: OCC conditional approval for Ripple National Trust Bank
While Ripple expands in Europe, it also picked up a significant U.S. regulatory development today.
The OCC announced it has conditionally approved five national trust bank charter applications, including Ripple National Trust Bank (as a de novo national trust bank charter). [22]
Reuters reported the move as a broader milestone for crypto’s integration into the U.S. banking system, noting the charters (if finalized) would allow the firms to manage/hold assets and settle payments faster, but would not permit taking deposits or making loans—and that final approvals are still pending. [23]
This matters for Ripple because the company has been marketing RLUSD as a “compliance-first” stablecoin. In Ripple’s Business Wire release, the firm framed the trust bank as a way to place RLUSD reserves under both state and federal oversight (NYDFS and OCC), while also describing RLUSD as having surpassed a $1B market cap in under a year (per Ripple’s statement). [24]
Not everyone is cheering: banks want more detail on the trust charters
Today’s OCC decision has also drawn pushback from traditional banking groups.
The Bank Policy Institute (BPI) issued a statement saying the OCC’s conditional approvals “leave substantial unanswered questions,” particularly around whether the requirements for the applicants are appropriately tailored to the risks of their proposed activities. [25]
That tension—innovation versus systemic-risk concerns—has been a recurring theme wherever stablecoins and banking charters intersect. And it’s likely to remain part of the story as crypto firms move further into regulated banking structures.
So… can XRP “make a comeback” on the AMINA deal?
The third theme running through today’s coverage is the question many retail readers ask first: What does this mean for XRP’s price?
On Dec. 12, 2025, XRP traded around $2.00 based on daily pricing snapshots (actual live prices vary by exchange and by minute). [26]
But it’s important to separate two related ideas:
- Ripple’s business adoption (payments infrastructure, stablecoin rails, bank integrations)
- XRP’s direct transactional usage (when XRP is used as a bridge asset for liquidity/FX conversion)
Ripple’s ecosystem can benefit from growth even when XRP isn’t directly used in every flow. CCN pointed out that not all RippleNet participants use XRP, and described XRP usage through On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) as a subset of activity. [27]
That nuance is why the market’s reaction to “bank adoption” headlines can be mixed: adoption strengthens the “real-world utility” narrative, but price impact depends on whether usage turns into sustained volume—and how much of that volume routes through XRP versus stablecoins or other mechanisms.
In other words: today’s AMINA news is a meaningful infrastructure milestone, but the “XRP comeback” question will likely be decided by what comes next—live corridor expansion, measurable volume, and whether the rails drive persistent demand rather than one-day sentiment.
What to watch next
If you’re tracking this story beyond the headline, these are the most concrete next steps implied by today’s announcements:
- Operational details from AMINA: which corridors, which client segments (corporates, institutions, crypto firms), and whether AMINA publishes performance improvements (cost, speed, transparency). [28]
- RLUSD integration depth: AMINA already supports RLUSD custody/trading; markets will watch whether RLUSD becomes meaningfully used in enterprise settlement flows rather than remaining a balance-sheet asset. [29]
- OCC follow-through: conditional approval is not final approval. Reuters and the OCC both emphasized additional steps before these trust banks can fully operate. [30]
- Industry response: banking groups are pressing for more transparency on how requirements are set for these new trust banks. [31]
References
1. ripple.com, 2. www.occ.gov, 3. ripple.com, 4. ripple.com, 5. ripple.com, 6. www.occ.gov, 7. www.coingecko.com, 8. ripple.com, 9. ripple.com, 10. ripple.com, 11. ripple.com, 12. ripple.com, 13. ripple.com, 14. ripple.com, 15. ripple.com, 16. ripple.com, 17. aminagroup.com, 18. ripple.com, 19. ripple.com, 20. www.businesswire.com, 21. www.ccn.com, 22. www.occ.gov, 23. www.reuters.com, 24. www.businesswire.com, 25. bpi.com, 26. www.coingecko.com, 27. www.ccn.com, 28. www.ccn.com, 29. aminagroup.com, 30. www.reuters.com, 31. bpi.com
