Overview
- The OCC granted conditional approvals for new national trust banks for Circle’s First National Digital Currency Bank and Ripple National Trust Bank, and for BitGo, Paxos and Fidelity Digital Assets to convert from state trust charters.
- The charters permit custody, fiduciary and related services with faster settlement options, but do not allow taking deposits or making loans.
- Each firm must meet OCC pre‑opening requirements before operations can begin, and any access to Federal Reserve settlement infrastructure remains subject to separate review.
- The approvals build on the GENIUS Act’s federal stablecoin framework and OCC Interpretive Letter 1188, which clarified banks may conduct riskless‑principal crypto transactions.
- Banking trade groups including the ABA, ICBA and BPI criticized the move as creating a two‑tier system, while executives such as Jeremy Allaire and Brad Garlinghouse framed the oversight as a regulatory milestone.