Modern Treasury Wants In On The Stablecoin Vault Club 🏦

Payments infrastructure company Modern Treasury has filed an application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish a federally regulated, limited-purpose national trust bank focused on digital asset custody. The proposed entity, called Modern Treasury National Trust Bank, would allow customers to custody and transfer stablecoins and fiat through an integrated service, but would not issue stablecoins or make loans.

The application, announced Monday, outlines a structure that would operate separately from Modern Treasury's existing payments business. That business has processed more than $600 billion in payments across hundreds of organizations, according to the company. "We believe stablecoins are foundational economic infrastructure for the future," Modern Treasury co-founder and CEO Matt Marcus said, noting that the company has already fully integrated stablecoins into its payments platform.

The filing adds Modern Treasury to a growing queue of crypto and payments companies pursuing national trust bank charters. Bastion and Ripple have received conditional approvals, while Circle and BitGo have received final approvals. Kraken parent Payward, Zerohash and Block have also submitted applications of their own.

The OCC is reviewing the Modern Treasury application, and no timeline for a decision has been disclosed.