OCC Paves Way for Crypto Firms to Obtain National Bank Charters

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has signaled that it will consider national bank charters for digital asset firms, a move that could grant them access to the Federal Reserve's payment system and other benefits.

Acting Comptroller Jonathan V. Gould told an audience this week that entities engaged in legally permissible activities, including digital assets, should have a path to becoming national banks.

The OCC has received 40 de novo applications over the past 18 months, including applications for national trust banks, and has resolved many complete applications within 120 days. This speed turns the chartering process from a multi-year ordeal into something approaching a quarterly cycle.

A national bank charter would offer digital asset firms direct access to the Federal Reserve's payment system, pre-emption of state licensing regimes, and a single federal supervisor instead of a patchwork of 50 state money-transmitter laws. Deposit insurance eligibility and the ability to offer trust and custody services under a unified framework would lower the cost of capital and unlock institutional flows that currently sit on the sidelines.

The real-world asset tokenization has crossed $20 billion on-chain, and major institutions like JPMorgan are settling live Treasury trades with firms such as Ondo. A domestic crypto banking sector is no longer optional when tokenized assets demand bank-grade settlement layers.