Circle soars after securing U.S. trust bank approval in crypto expansion

Summary

• Circle, issuer of the USDC stablecoin, has received final approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish a federally supervised national trust bank.
• Shares are higher by 14% in pre-market trading.
• The new entity, Circle National Trust, will initially provide fiduciary digital asset custody services for Circle and its affiliates, with potential expansion to select institutional clients such as banks and other regulated financial firms.

Circle (CRCL), the issuer of the world's second largest stablecoin USDC, received 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 users with custody and fiduciary services but do not accept consumer deposits or make loans like traditional commercial banks.

“OCC approval to establish Circle National Trust marks a defining step in bringing blockchain technology and digital assets into the core of the U.S. financial system,” Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said Friday in a statement announcing the milestone. “Federal oversight of our trust bank sets a new standard for transparency, governance, and scale for Circle's infrastructure.”

The move comes as crypto firms such as Kraken, increasingly seek federal charters, licenses and banking approvals. Crypto.com secured an OCC license in February to operate as a federally regulated crypto custodian bank. BitGo, Circle, Ripple, Paxos, and Fidelity Digital Assets all received similar conditional approvals in December.