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On December 12, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced conditional approval for five national trust bank charter applications from five major crypto companies. These conditional approvals mark a notable development in the federal supervision of crypto-native business models, underscoring the OCC's continued caution in extending the national banking framework to firms engaged in digital asset custody and stablecoin-related activities.
National trust banks operate under a limited charter. Unlike full-service national banks, trust banks generally may not accept deposits or make loans as principal and instead focus on fiduciary and custodial activities. In recent years, several digital asset firms have pursued this charter as an alternative to operating under a patchwork of state money transmission and trust company regimes, seeking the benefits of a single federal regulator and nationwide authority without becoming insured depository institutions.
The conditional nature of these approvals reflects broader policy debates surrounding the role of national trust banks in the digital asset ecosystem. Banking trade groups have questioned whether the trust charter framework, historically designed for fiduciary and custodial services, is appropriate for the applicants' business models, which involve high-volume payment settlement, stablecoin reserve management, and other crypto-related activities. Banking trade groups have also expressed concerns about charter arbitrage and the potential for trust banks to engage in bank-like functions without being subject to the full prudential regime applicable to federally insured depository institutions.
At the same time, the OCC's conditional approvals suggest a willingness to engage with digital asset firms seeking to operate within the federal banking system, provided that such firms accept meaningful constraints and enhanced supervision. In this sense, the approvals may be understood not as an endorsement of any particular business model, but as a controlled experiment in bringing certain crypto activities under a uniform federal supervisory framework.
Putting It Into Practice: Digital asset firms considering a national trust bank charter should expect a highly conditioned and supervisory-intensive process. Applicants should be prepared to demonstrate mature governance structures, detailed activity-level risk assessments, and conservative operational plans aligned with the traditional fiduciary role of trust banks. Firms should anticipate ongoing reporting requirements and potential OCC-imposed restrictions on permissible activities. Market participants should also continue to monitor whether future applications face heightened scrutiny or a narrower range of permissible activities as the trust charter pathway evolves.
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