Ripple (CRYPTO: XRP) has been piling up wins lately—banking licenses, major institutional tie-ups, and a stablecoin that crossed a billion dollars in market cap. But there’s one thing still standing between Ripple and the institutional adoption it’s been chasing: direct access to the Federal Reserve’s payment rails.
That’s the piece that would let Ripple plug into the same infrastructure every major U.S. bank uses to move money. Based on how long Kraken waited for its own approval, that could be a five-year journey through the Fed’s application queue.
However, a new bipartisan bill introduced on April 21 could cut that timeline down to months. Two California Reps dropped the Payments Access and Consumer Efficiency (PACE) Act, which names Ripple and Circle as two of the biggest beneficiaries. So could this be the legislative shortcut that finally unlocks Ripple’s Fed access?
What the PACE Act Does and Why It Singles Out Ripple and Circle
Nonbank payment firms have been stuck with the same problem for years: they can’t connect directly to the Fed’s payment rails. Every transaction has to be routed through a partner bank, and those banks charge markups that can run up to 100 times the Fed’s own per-item fee. That’s the setup the PACE Act is built to dismantle.
The bill creates a new federal category called “registered covered provider” that any qualifying nonbank can apply for through the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). Once approved, these providers get direct access to all three of the Fed’s core payment systems: Fedwire for large-value transfers, FedNow for instant payments, and FedACH for high-volume batched transactions.
The FedACH piece is where PACE goes further than the Fed’s own proposal. The Fed’s December “skinny master account” plan only covered Fedwire and FedNow, which fintech groups criticized because it still forced them back onto bank partners for ACH flows.
However, the qualification bar isn’t low. Applicants need money transmitter licenses in at least 40 states and must maintain 1:1 reserves, plus meet OCC standards for risk management and Bank Secrecy Act compliance.
That bar is why Ripple and Circle are named as two of the biggest beneficiaries—both already hold conditional OCC national trust charters, putting them among the few crypto firms with the federal infrastructure to plug into this framework on day one.
How the PACE Act Could Shortcut Ripple’s Wait for Fed Access
Ripple already has a Fed master account application pending, which was filed in 2025 through its Standard Custody subsidiary. That application falls into what the Fed calls Tier 3—the slowest review track, where only two uninsured institutions have ever been granted full master account access. That’s the queue Ripple is in right now.
The PACE Act would rip that queue out and replace it with a statutory deadline. Under the bill, the OCC has 180 days to deem an application complete and another 180 days to approve or deny it. If the OCC misses that second window, the application is automatically granted. So a process that currently runs with no deadline turns into a clock that caps out at roughly a year—with the regulator on the defensive rather than the applicant.
Moreover, under current rules, trust companies like Ripple’s aren’t classified as depository institutions, which is the only category the Fed has historically allowed to access Fedwire and ACH directly. The PACE Act creates a new statutory category—registered covered provider—that sidesteps the requirement entirely. Ripple could plug into the rails without converting into a full bank, so the framework comes to Ripple instead of the other way around.
Can the PACE Act Pass—and What XRP Holders Should Watch
Unlike the CLARITY Act, the PACE Act stays out of the market structure fight that’s bogged down crypto legislation all year—no stablecoin yield battle, or banks and crypto firms shoving each other over deposit competition. The message is about cheaper Venmo transactions and faster direct deposits for working Americans. That’s why Liccardo, who voted against CLARITY last July, is co-sponsoring this one.
However, groups like the American Bankers Association and the Bank Policy Institute already pushed back against the Fed’s own skinny master account proposal, and they’ll treat PACE as an even bigger threat because it’s statutory. Once it passes, it’s harder to roll back than Fed rulemaking. That makes coordinated opposition during the committee process almost certain, with these groups arguing that letting nonbanks into Fed rails creates an uneven playing field and adds systemic risk.
For XRP holders, the first thing to watch is the committee’s movement. Specifically, whether PACE Act gets assigned to the House Financial Services Committee and scheduled for a hearing before Congress heads into the midterm campaign in October. A committee assignment and hearing schedule in the next two months would mean the bill is on a real path to a House vote.
The second thing to watch is whether a Senate companion bill gets introduced. Without a Senate version, PACE stays symbolic. But with one, it will become a real piece of legislation with a path to the President’s desk.
Could the PACE Act Be the Quiet Win XRP Has Been Waiting For?
The PACE Act matters even if it never becomes law. The bill’s real value lies in forcing a conversation the Fed has spent years avoiding. A bipartisan coalition just wrote Ripple’s name into a statutory path to Fed rails, and that alone puts pressure on Ripple’s existing application in ways no lawsuit or lobbying effort has managed to.
For XRP holders, this is the regulatory groundwork that institutional adoption requires. Fed rails access gives Ripple the settlement infrastructure to push RLUSD and XRP Ledger flows deeper into U.S. banking without depending on partner banks. That’s the credibility layer institutions have been waiting for before putting serious money through Ripple’s corridors.
The PACE Act might not be the bill that gets Ripple there, but once Congress starts writing legislation like this, something eventually will.
