Sony Bank Passes OCC's Trust Test, Sets $40M Stake in Stablecoin Game 🎮💵

Sony Bank, a subsidiary of Sony Financial Group, has received preliminary approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish a new national trust bank subsidiary that will issue dollar-denominated stablecoins. The new unit, Connectia Trust, National Association, was granted preliminary approval on July 2 and will be fully owned by Sony Bank, according to a Monday announcement by Sony Financial Group. Sony Bank said it plans to launch the subsidiary this month with $40 million in starting capital, but no business activities or stablecoin issuance will occur until all remaining approvals and authorizations, including final OCC approval, are received. The unit is expected to begin operating in 2027 once regulatory conditions are cleared.

The trust is intended to build a "medium- to long-term business foundation" for Sony Financial Group's digital-asset business, according to Sony Bank's July 6 statement. The bank has previously told Nikkei that it wants U.S. customers to use the token to pay for digital content across Sony's ecosystem, including the PlayStation platform and the Crunchyroll anime service, in order to reduce card payment fees. No major franchise has yet committed to the plan. The push is enabled by the GENIUS Act, the federal law passed last year that set reserve and disclosure rules for dollar-pegged tokens. Sony Bank has tapped infrastructure firm Bastion to handle issuance, reserve management and custody for the token.

Sony's move extends a broader crypto strategy that includes Soneium, an Ethereum layer-2 network launched in early 2025, on which blockchain partner Startale rolled out a separate dollar stablecoin late last year. In March, Sony Bank signed a memorandum of understanding with stablecoin issuer JPYC Inc. to study whether the Japanese yen-pegged stablecoin can be connected more directly to the bank's deposit rails. Sony is joining a line of crypto and payments firms seeking federal trust status; in December, the OCC conditionally approved Circle, Ripple, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos, with additional applications continuing to arrive, including one from Trump-linked World Liberty Financial.

A national trust charter allows a firm to custody assets, manage reserves and issue stablecoins under federal supervision, but bars it from taking cash deposits or making loans. Sony's application has faced industry resistance: in November, the Independent Community Bankers of America urged the OCC to reject the Connectia Trust application, arguing it would let Sony issue deposit-like stablecoins while sidestepping the insurance and rules that bind ordinary banks.

Other major banks are also pursuing stablecoin integrations. Last Thursday, Standard Chartered and Circle said they developed a system that lets institutions mint and redeem the USDC stablecoin through a bank-led onboarding process, allowing clients to mint and redeem the dollar-backed stablecoin directly through StanChart's platform instead of opening separate accounts with Circle. SWIFT has also launched a blockchain ledger with a 17-bank tokenized deposit pilot. Meanwhile, Congressional progress on the CLARITY Act, the first regulatory framework for digital assets in the U.S., remains stalled, prompting Galaxy Digital to cut its odds of the bill becoming law in 2026 to 50%. The legislation is set for a House of Representatives hearing on July 17, but Galaxy's head of research, Alex Thorn, warned that the bill may not have enough floor time before the Senate is scheduled to leave for its traditional four-week recess on Aug. 8. The bill cleared the Senate Banking Committee in May but faced pushback from most Democrats and the banking industry over concerns it would allow crypto firms to offer yields on stablecoins without facing the same requirements as traditional financial institutions. At the beginning of June, more than 200 crypto companies and related organizations urged the Senate to pass the CLARITY Act in a letter.