Key Takeaways:
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said Aug. 11 that digital asset companies conducting legally permissible activities can pursue U.S. national bank charters, with 13 crypto licensing applications now pending before the agency.
"New entrants to the banking system drive competition and innovation and are crucial to a healthy financial system," Jonathan V. Gould, Comptroller of the Currency, said in the OCC's release. "America and the OCC are once again open for business."
The OCC received 40 de novo applications over the past 18 months, including national trust bank filings, and has decided many complete applications within 120 days. The current digital asset pipeline lists 13 pending applicants, among them Payward National Trust Company, World Liberty Trust Company, Revolut Bank US, PAYO Digital Bank, EDX Trust, Agora National Trust Bank and Dakota National Trust Bank, whose July 28 filing is the newest.
The shift follows the FDIC's Aug. 10 overhaul of deposit insurance reviews, which targets contingent authorization within 120 days, and could place crypto custody, settlement and other permitted services under a single federal supervisor rather than a patchwork of state regimes.
Several large crypto companies have moved further through the process. The OCC conditionally approved applications involving Circle, Ripple, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos in December 2025, and Coinbase received preliminary conditional approval in April. OCC records show Circle's First National Digital Currency Bank became effective July 10.
The path is not automatic. OCC records show Wise National Trust's application was denied on July 21, a counterpoint to claims that the regulator is opening federal charters to every new entrant. The OCC also adopted a chartering rule effective April 1 that replaced references to "fiduciary activities" with "operations of a trust company and activities related thereto," while saying the change neither expands nor contracts its chartering authority.
The FDIC's new process applies to federal deposit insurance applications received after Aug. 15. Phase one begins when an application arrives and aims for contingent authorization within 120 days; phase two can run up to 12 months while organizers complete requirements for final approval. Many digital asset companies pursuing national trust charters follow a different structure and do not seek FDIC-insured deposits, though Gould said the reform supports the OCC's effort to reverse the decline in new bank formation — the agency received fewer than four charter applications annually on average from 2011 through 2014.
The expansion has drawn resistance. Sen. Elizabeth Warren has questioned whether some crypto trust charters exceed the National Bank Act's limits, pressing Gould to explain the legal basis for approving digital asset applicants. The Bank Policy Institute also challenged Payward's application in a June comment, asking the OCC to examine capital and liquidity support, affiliate transactions and resolution planning.
Attention now turns to the 13 pending applications and firms holding conditional approvals. Conditional approval alone does not permit a proposed bank to begin business; applicants must still satisfy regulatory, financial, management and supervisory requirements. Further OCC approvals, denials or any formal legal challenge from industry groups could determine how quickly more crypto companies gain a federal banking foothold.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
