Circle's Trust Bank Charter Is Final — Even USDC's Backup Now Has a Banker 📈

Circle has received final approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a national trust bank, the company said Friday. The new institution, First National Digital Currency Bank, N.A., will operate under the name Circle National Trust and marks one of the first crypto-native firms to clear the OCC's latest digital asset trust bank review. Circle applied for the charter in June 2025. The bank will initially provide fiduciary digital asset custody services for Circle and its affiliated companies, with a potential future expansion to a limited group of institutional customers, including banks and regulated derivatives firms, if demand develops. The trust bank structure could also enable future management of the USDC Reserve, bringing those operations under federal 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. "Today is a historic day for Circle. This is all part of building a new fundamental money layer for the internet," Allaire added in a post on X.

Circle's regulatory footprint now spans multiple major markets. The company said it became the first 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. Circle has also secured approvals in the United Kingdom, Singapore, Bermuda, Canada, and Abu Dhabi. 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. Sony Bank also signaled on Thursday that it had received conditional OCC approval to establish a national trust bank. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has argued that the charters were improperly granted, while trade groups including the Digital Chamber have pushed back against that criticism.

Unlike a traditional commercial bank, a national trust bank does not operate as a retail lender or accept consumer deposits in the conventional sense, instead specializing in fiduciary services, asset custody, and trust activities under OCC oversight. Allaire noted that Circle will offer custodial services for digital assets via its bank, referencing stablecoins and tokenized securities that represent real-world assets. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong praised the development; Coinbase has a revenue-sharing agreement with Circle that splits interest income from assets backing USDC, largely U.S. Treasuries.

At publishing time, USDC is the second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization at $73.3 billion, according to CoinGecko, with one source citing $73.2 billion. Its market cap has increased 16.7% over the past year from $62.8 billion, though it has declined 2.5% year-to-date from $75.2 billion. 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; after the opening bell, shares changed hands 8.4% higher at around $68.40, with an intraday pre-market high of $73.80. Shares in CRCL had fallen 18% on Tuesday amid news of competing stablecoin Open USD from partners including Coinbase, Visa, and Mastercard, a move Clear Street analysts called an overreaction in a Wednesday note.