Circle Wins Final OCC Approval to Open a National Custodial Trust Bank

Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, said it has received final approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a national custodial bank. The company said the federally chartered trust bank will operate as "Circle National Trust," with the legal name "First National Digital Currency Bank, N.A. Circle National Trust Bank." The decision follows the conditional approval Circle received about seven months ago, a milestone widely viewed as strengthening the firm's standing within the U.S. financial system. Circle said the approval places its USDC custody operations under federal oversight. At launch, the new national custodian bank will provide custody services only to Circle's affiliates, allowing the company to handle digital-asset security and operational processes more directly in-house. Circle added that, over time, the bank is intended to assume management of the U.S. dollar reserves backing USDC. Co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire said the OCC's approval "represents a decisive step" toward bringing blockchain technology and digital assets further into the U.S. financial system, adding that federal supervision of the trust bank sets a higher bar for transparency, governance, and scalability and could support broader institutional use of public blockchains. Circle applied to the OCC last June and secured conditional approval in December. Ripple has received conditional approval from the OCC for "Ripple National Trust Bank" but has not yet received final approval. This is not investment advice.