Circle Secures OCC Approval For National Trust Bank

The issuer of USDC has secured final approval from the US banking regulator to open its own federally chartered trust bank.

Circle Internet Group (NYSE: CRCL), issuer of USDC, the world's second-largest stablecoin with a market capitalisation of roughly $73.3 billion, received final approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) on 10 July 2026. The OCC is the federal agency that supervises national banks and national trust banks in the United States.

The new entity, First National Digital Currency Bank, N.A., will trade as Circle National Trust. It will sit under direct federal OCC oversight rather than a patchwork of state-level supervision. A national trust bank does not take deposits or issue loans in the conventional sense; instead, it provides custody and fiduciary services for client assets.

Circle filed its charter application on 30 June 2025 and received conditional approval in December 2025. Initially, the bank will provide digital asset custody services exclusively for Circle and its affiliates, with a possible later expansion to a limited number of institutional clients, such as banks and regulated derivatives firms.

The OCC-approved business plan also allows, in future, for management of the USDC Reserve to move under direct federal oversight, though no timeline has been set for that step. Circle shares reacted sharply on Friday, climbing as much as 16% intraday to touch a high near $73, before giving back part of those gains later in the session. Chief executive Jeremy Allaire called the approval a defining step in bringing blockchain technology into the core of the US financial system.

Circle was the first company to receive a BitLicense from New York State in 2015, and the first global stablecoin issuer to comply with the EU's MiCA framework in 2024.

Sources: Circle Internet Group, official press release, 10 July 2026; Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, approval decision, July 2026; CoinGecko, USDC market cap data, 10 July 2026.