Ripple Offers Returns on Eligible Digital Assets Through 24/7 Treasury Platform
Key Facts
On October 26, 2026, Ripple announced new capabilities in its Ripple Treasury platform, including a feature that lets eligible institutional clients earn returns on eligible digital assets held in a Ripple wallet, including RLUSD. The program is subject to eligibility requirements, and the announcement did not specify a return rate. The company said the feature targets balances that may otherwise sit idle overnight, on weekends and on public holidays. The announcement pairs this functionality with an orchestration layer connected to GSmart to manage treasury operations. The capabilities were unveiled during Swell 2026.
The new layer coordinates workflows for cash positioning, forecasting, reconciliation, liquidity management and payments, according to Ripple. These functions connect balance management with forecasting and record reconciliation, through to liquidity and payment management in a single workflow. Kevin Permentier of IDC said the emerging challenge is coordinating trusted data, intelligence and the ability to move money. He added that bringing these layers together on one platform addresses the most important constraint. Ripple presents this as an expansion of institutional treasury tools for round-the-clock operations.
The returns feature comes amid growing interest in continuous liquidity, but the Association for Financial Professionals’ 2026 survey found that stablecoin use remains limited. The association said 41% of organizations expect money market funds to provide round-the-clock liquidity, compared with 38% in 2025. Some 86% of treasury professionals said their organizations would choose real-time money market funds if they met investment policy requirements. By contrast, only 1% of organizations use or are testing stablecoins, while 9% are exploring their potential. The association said current liquidity strategies prioritize safety and risk mitigation, leaving stablecoins and tokenized products on the margins for most treasury teams.
The survey was conducted in March 2026 and included 309 treasury professionals working at U.S. organizations of varying sizes and across sectors. Its findings also showed that three-quarters of organizations have a written investment policy guiding their short-term strategy. An average of 83% of short-term investment balances is held in safe, liquid instruments such as bank deposits, money market funds and Treasury securities, the association said. It also reported that 46% of organizations increased their U.S. dollar cash balances over the past year. The association says treasury teams remain reluctant to adopt stablecoins while regulations are still being developed.
In a separate announcement on September 10, 2026, Ripple Treasury said 60% of its eligible clients had activated Risk Insights, and 44% were using Forecast Insights. These figures reflect prior use of GSmart tools and do not relate to the launch of the returns feature on October 26. The company said agents monitor operations, propose a specific action and cite the related policy provision, then wait for approval before execution. It added that deterministic engines perform financial calculations, while AI is used to interpret policies, identify patterns and explain recommendations. Approval for each financial action remains with treasury teams, the company said.
Ripple Treasury cited American Airlines’ experience with the treasury platform, saying the company’s visibility into global cash rose from about 65% to 99%. Accounting entry automation also increased from about 50% to 90%, while the story said automation saved up to 20% of hours. The company published these figures in a customer story about use of the platform, not the 24/7 Returns program. The example does not establish that American Airlines participates in the returns program. This context is part of Ripple’s presentation of a platform designed to manage corporate cash, liquidity and payments.
On the same day, Ripple said the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency had granted final approval to establish Ripple National Trust Bank, following conditional approval in December 2025. The company said the approved activities include managing the segregated reserves backing RLUSD, acting as trustee for the reserves on behalf of currency holders, and providing digital asset custody services. It said Standard Custody & Trust Company will continue to issue RLUSD. Ripple added that the currency launched in December 2024 and had a market capitalization of $2.5 billion in its October 26 statement, and that BNY is the primary reserve custodian. Swell 2026 is being held in New York from October 27 to 29.