Circle Gets OCC Green Light to Open Its Own Bank, Because Stablecoins Now Have Trust Issues 🏦

Circle, the issuer of the $73.3 billion USDC stablecoin, has received final approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a national trust bank called First National Digital Currency Bank, N.A., which will operate under the name Circle National Trust, the company announced on Friday. The approval, which follows Circle's June 2025 application for the charter, allows the firm to set up a federally regulated trust institution and expand its digital asset custody infrastructure.

Circle National Trust will initially provide fiduciary digital asset custody services for Circle and its affiliated companies, according to the approved business plan. The bank could later extend those services to a limited group of institutional customers, including banks, regulated derivatives firms and other financial institutions, if demand develops. The trust bank structure is also designed to support future management of the USDC Reserve, bringing those operations under federal banking oversight if implemented.

"OCC approval to establish Circle National Trust marks a defining step in bringing blockchain technology and digital assets into the core of the US financial system," Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said. The company said the charter would provide greater transparency, governance and confidence for institutions building on public blockchains.

The approval positions Circle at the forefront of the OCC's recent push to integrate crypto firms into the federal banking system. In December 2025, the OCC granted conditional approval to a group of crypto-focused national trust bank applicants, including Circle, Ripple, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos. Circle has now progressed from conditional to final approval, becoming one of the first crypto-native firms from that cohort to reach the operational stage. Unlike a traditional commercial bank, a national trust bank does not operate as a retail lender or accept consumer deposits in the conventional sense, but instead specializes in fiduciary services, asset custody and trust activities under OCC oversight.

The OCC approval adds to a growing regulatory footprint for Circle, which said it became the first company to receive a BitLicense from the New York Department of Financial Services in 2015 and the first global stablecoin issuer to comply with the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) framework in 2024. The company has also secured regulatory approvals in the United Kingdom, Singapore, Bermuda, Canada and Abu Dhabi as it expands USDC infrastructure globally. At publishing time, USDC is the second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization, up 16.7% over the past year from $62.8 billion but down 2.5% year-to-date from $75.2 billion, according to CoinGecko.

Circle Internet Group's (CRCL) stock rose around 16% in pre-market trading on Friday following the announcement, climbing above $73 after closing the previous session at $63, according to Yahoo Finance data.