Does Circle want to be a bank too? What is the purpose of OCC's national trust bank license?

Following the astonishing IPO wave, stablecoin issuer Circle announced that it has officially submitted an application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish the First National Digital Currency Bank (, providing digital asset custody services to institutional clients and subject to federal oversight.

OCC approved national trust bank license

The "National Trust Bank Charter" approved by the OCC (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency) allows institutions to operate at the federal level and provide specific financial services, particularly related to digital assets and trust management:

Digital asset custody: legally custodial for cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, tokenized assets, etc.

Trust Services: Providing institutional clients with asset management, estate planning, pension fund and other trust services.

No traditional banking services provided: Traditional services such as accepting deposits and issuing loans are usually not included.

Federal Regulatory Advantages: Regulated by OCC, no need to apply for licenses on a state-by-state basis, enhancing regulatory consistency and market trust.

According to a spokesperson for the regulatory agency, Circle submitted an application to the OCC on June 30. According to the OCC's licensing manual, charter applications typically require a 30-day comment period, and the OCC will make a decision within 120 days after receiving a complete application.

The license will allow Circle to directly manage its USDC reserves ) currently custodied by BNY and BlackRock (, and provide cryptocurrency asset custody services for institutional clients. This will enable stablecoin operators to do more business integration upstream.

If one can obtain this federal-level license, it not only establishes certainty in the U.S. market but also secures a place in international dialogues, creating opportunities and important venues for pursuing regulatory coordination.

Currently, only Anchorage Digital is a cryptocurrency operator, while Circle is striving to capture the second market.

Former Fox reporter and current host of the "CryptoAmerica" podcast, Eleanor Terrett, stated in a post on X on Monday that several other cryptocurrency companies, including Fidelity Digital Assets under Fidelity, are applying to the OCC for a national bank charter. During President Biden's term, only one crypto company, Anchorage Digital, has received this charter ) with conditional approval (.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency )OCC( conditionally approved Paxos's application for a charter for the Paxos National Trust )Paxos National Trust( in April 2021. However, after a series of events, Paxos ultimately did not pass the OCC's final test. The records from the Comptroller's office indicate that the new banking charter application submitted by the stablecoin issuer expired at the end of March 2023.

And can the dream of entering the Federal Reserve's RRP reverse repurchase agreement through BlackRock's management of the Circle Reserve Fund be realized? Researcher Yu Zhe'an previously analyzed that the stablecoin issuer Circle has been silently challenging the current financial order using "institutional options." What kind of game will Circle play this time?

)Circle wants to complete the unfinished challenge of narrow banking? The systemic infiltration war of the US dollar stablecoin (

Does Circle also want to be a bank? What is the purpose of OCC's national trust bank license? First appeared in Chain News ABMedia.