OCC Grants National Bank Charters to Circle, Ripple and Other Crypto Firms

Four stablecoin issuers have been granted conditional approval for national banking charters by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the agency said Friday. The OCC conditionally approved applications for new national banking charters for USDC issuer Circle’s First National Digital Currency Bank and Ripple National Trust Bank. The other three—BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Paxos Trust Company—already had state charters and were conditionally approved for conversions.

The companies are collectively responsible for issuing USDC, RLUSD, USDS, and PYUSD. Fidelity hasn’t yet issued a stablecoin, but was said to be testing in anticipation of a launch earlier this year. “New entrants into the federal banking sector are good for consumers, the banking industry and the economy,” Jonathan V. Gould, Comptroller of the Currency, said in a press release.

“They provide access to new products, services and sources of credit to consumers, and ensure a dynamic, competitive and diverse banking system.” The five newly approved charters aren’t the first crypto firms to get OCC approval for national banking charters, though. That honorific belongs to Anchorage Digital Bank, which had its charter approved in 2021.

“We welcome the new conditional charters as a validation of our original vision: federal banking regulation strengthens the digital asset ecosystem,” the company said in a statement shared with Decrypt. “With a nearly five-year head start—and immense investment in compliance along the way—Anchorage Digital Bank has pioneered a path for others to follow.”

Stablecoins have ballooned to $313 billion in 2025, gaining more than $100 billion since the start of the year, according to crypto price aggregator CoinGecko. That’s due in large part to the signing of the GENIUS Act, which created a regulatory framework for issuers in the U.S..

But that doesn’t mean all the crypto applicants have been waved through by the OCC. Coinbase; Crypto.com’s Foris DAX National Trust Bank; Stripe’s stablecoin orchestration affiliate Bridge; Brazil neobank Nubank; and Sony’s Connectia still have pending applications. Protego’s National Digital Trust Company is still waiting for another shot, too. The company got a conditional approval in 2021, but the decision was paused after Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown sent a letter asking the OCC to “reassess.”