Overview
- Industry groups led by the Digital Chamber sent a letter to OCC Comptroller Jonathan Gould on May 26 urging the agency to stand by recent national trust bank approvals for firms such as Coinbase, Circle, and Ripple and to set clear supervisory rules for trust banks.
- Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote to the OCC on May 18 and 19 and set a June 1 deadline for full applications, internal legal analyses, and any communications with President Trump or his family, arguing the approvals may violate the National Bank Act.
- The GENIUS Act, passed in July 2025, created a federal category for permitted payment stablecoin issuers and the OCC published proposed implementing rules in early 2026, which industry groups cite as legal authority for OCC supervision and chartering.
- The national trust charters at issue are limited‑purpose approvals that allow fiduciary custody, stablecoin issuance and reserve management but do not permit FDIC‑insured deposit taking or traditional commercial lending.
- If the OCC defends and finalizes the conditional approvals, crypto firms gain a federal on‑ramp that could shift competition away from state licensing; if the OCC retreats, firms may return to a patchwork of state rules and legal challenges that could reshape custody and payments markets.