Crypto National Trust Banks move into the federal mainstream

A quiet but consequential shift is under way in US financial regulation.

Crypto National Trust Banks

Five prominent digital asset firms — Circle, Ripple, Fidelity Digital Assets, BitGo and Paxos — have secured conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to convert into federally chartered national trust banks.

The decision marks one of the clearest signals yet that Washington intends to fold stablecoin issuers and crypto custodians into the core of the regulated banking system rather than keeping them at arm’s length.

National trust bank status is not a full banking licence. These entities cannot take retail deposits or extend credit in the traditional sense.

What they can do, however, is operate under federal supervision, provide fiduciary services such as custody, and — crucially for payments markets — anchor digital dollars inside a recognised regulatory perimeter.

From State Patchwork to Federal Oversight

Until now, most major stablecoin issuers have operated under state-level regimes, most notably New York’s Department of Financial Services.

While robust, this framework has never fully resolved questions around systemic risk, interoperability, or federal accountability.

The OCC’s move consolidates oversight and establishes a single supervisory authority for some of the most systemically important crypto-native firms.

The timing matters.

Following the passage of the GENIUS Act, a growing number of crypto companies — including Coinbase — have sought federal oversight, betting that regulatory clarity will unlock institutional adoption and broader integration with the payments ecosystem.

The OCC’s leadership has also changed tone markedly, reframing crypto not as an irritant but as a test case for modernising the US banking model.

Stablecoins Gain Institutional Legitimacy

For stablecoin issuers, the implications are significant. Circle’s USDC, with a market capitalisation approaching $80bn, is already deeply embedded in global trading, cross-border settlement and on-chain commerce.

Federal trust bank status strengthens assurances around reserve management, custody and governance — all areas of persistent concern for regulators and institutional users alike.

Ripple, meanwhile, is positioning its RLUSD stablecoin as a compliance-first alternative for enterprise payments.

Its leadership has framed the OCC’s approval as a rebuttal to claims that crypto operates outside the rules, arguing instead that the industry is now submitting itself to the highest supervisory standards available in the US.

Payments, Not Lending, at the Core

It is important to be precise about what this development does — and does not — represent. Trust banks do not threaten incumbent lenders directly. They are payments and custody institutions, not credit creators.

But that distinction is precisely what makes them relevant to the future of money movement. Stablecoins settle instantly, operate continuously, and bypass much of the friction embedded in correspondent banking and card networks.

By bringing these capabilities inside the federal system, regulators are tacitly acknowledging that stablecoins are no longer a fringe experiment.

They are becoming regulated payment instruments, sitting somewhere between bank money and market infrastructure.

The End of Crypto’s Regulatory Exile

The approvals also carry political weight. For an industry long plagued by debanking and regulatory hostility, the OCC’s decision represents a definitive pivot from exclusion to integration. It does not end scrutiny — far from it — but it replaces ambiguity with structure.

For the payments industry, the message is clear. Stablecoins are not being banned, marginalised or ignored. They are being domesticated.

And once digital dollars sit comfortably inside the federal banking framework, the competitive dynamics of global payments may begin to shift faster than many incumbents expect.