Circle Internet Group (NYSE: CRCL) secured final approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on July 10 to establish a national trust bank, converting a conditional charter it received in December 2025 into a fully operational federal license. The entity, legally named First National Digital Currency Bank, N.A. and doing business as Circle National Trust, will provide fiduciary custody of digital assets for Circle and its affiliates under direct OCC supervision , a first for the $186 billion USDC stablecoin issuer.
CRCL shares surged as much as 15% in pre-market trading following the announcement before settling around $72, still well below the stock's 52-week high of $262.97 set last August. The regulatory milestone comes during a difficult stretch for Circle's stock, which has been under pressure since late June after Stripe, Visa, and BlackRock backed the rival Open USD stablecoin initiative, raising questions about how much of the dollar-stablecoin market Circle can defend.
Circle now has what no other stablecoin issuer has: a federal banking charter and a MiCA license. That dual-regulatory positioning is the playbook for surviving the stablecoin wars.
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The national trust bank will not take deposits, issue USDC, or make consumer loans. It is chartered as a trust bank rather than a commercial bank, meaning it operates without Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation coverage and under a lighter supervisory framework than a traditional lender. Circle's business plan includes provisions to extend custody services later to a limited set of institutional clients such as banks and regulated derivatives firms, but only depending on demand, the company said.
Circle first applied for the OCC charter on June 30, 2025, the same week it went public via its SPAC merger. The OCC issued conditional approvals in December 2025 to five crypto firms simultaneously: Circle, Ripple, BitGo, Paxos, and Fidelity Digital Assets. Since then, only Circle and Coinbase , which received its own national trust charter in April 2026 , have completed the path from conditional to full approval.
The approval places USDC's reserve custody under federal oversight for the first time. Circle's stablecoin is backed by cash and short-term U.S. government securities currently held across existing regulated entities. Moving those reserves under the trust bank would put their management under direct OCC examination, but Circle has not said when or whether it will take that step. For now, the bank will focus on custody of Circle's own digital assets.
Jeremy Allaire, Circle's co-founder, chairman, and CEO, called federal supervision the defining step in bringing blockchain infrastructure into the U.S. financial system. "Clarity and confidence" for financial institutions building on public blockchains was his framing in the company's press release. The Bank Policy Institute has signaled it is considering legal action against the OCC's crypto trust charter policy, arguing that crypto firms could offer bank-like products without carrying the same obligations as full-service lenders.
The approval positions Circle to compete more aggressively for institutional business as the stablecoin market undergoes structural change. USDC faces pressure from multiple directions: the rival Open USD consortium, Tether's dominant $184 billion USDT market share, and the European MiCA framework that is pushing non-compliant stablecoins off EU platforms. Circle already holds a MiCA license, and the OCC charter gives it a federal home-market credential that no other major stablecoin issuer has yet secured.
Other crypto firms are moving through the OCC pipeline. Nomura's Laser Digital and Sony Bank's Connectia Trust have secured conditional approvals in recent months. The OCC's public docket also shows pending applications from Morgan Stanley's digital trust arm and Revolut's U.S. bank entity, suggesting the charter path is attracting interest beyond the first wave of crypto-native applicants.
Key takeaways
- Circle received final OCC approval for First National Digital Currency Bank, N.A., operating as Circle National Trust, bringing USDC custod…
- CRCL stock jumped as much as 15% pre-market but remains down roughly 73% from its 52-week high.
- The charter covers only fiduciary custody of Circle's own digital assets for now, with institutional client expansion possible later.
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