Circle (CRCL), the world’s second largest stablecoin issuer $USDCreceived approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a national trust bank.
National Trust Banks are authorized to provide custody and fiduciary services to users, but they do not accept consumer deposits or make loans like traditional commercial banks.
Shares rose 14% in premarket trading.
“The OCC’s approval to establish Circle National Trust is a decisive step in bringing blockchain technology and digital assets to the core of the U.S. financial system,” Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said in a statement announcing the milestone on Friday. “Federal oversight of our trust banks sets new standards for transparency, governance, and scale for Circle’s infrastructure.”
The move comes as crypto companies such as Kraken increasingly seek federal approvals, licenses and banking approvals. Crypto.com received an OCC license to operate as a federally regulated crypto custodian bank in February. BitGo, Circle, Ripple, Paxos, and Fidelity Digital Assets all received similar conditional approvals in December.
