The approval places Circle's USDC reserve infrastructure under direct federal oversight and allows the company to offer digital asset custody services
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Circle Internet Group received approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Friday to establish a national trust bank, which will operate under the name Circle National Trust. Circle stock jumped more than 12% in early trading following the announcement.
At launch, the new entity — formally chartered as First National Digital Currency Bank, N.A. — will focus on providing digital asset custody to Circle and its affiliated companies, the company said. According to CNBC, deposit-taking and lending are outside the scope of what the charter permits — functions that would define a commercial bank.
The approval brings Circle's operations under a single federal regulator rather than a patchwork of state-level oversight, the company said. Before the charter, the cash and Treasury securities underpinning USDC were held by outside banks and custodians on Circle's behalf, according to CNBC.
USDC, Circle's dollar-pegged stablecoin, has roughly $73 billion in circulation. The charter is designed to eventually allow Circle National Trust to manage USDC reserves directly, which would bring those operations under federal regulatory oversight, the company said. The bank could eventually extend its custody offerings to a select group of outside institutional clients, with a particular emphasis on regulated financial institutions, if demand warrants it.
"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 co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire said in a statement. "Federal oversight of our trust bank sets a new standard for transparency, governance, and scale for Circle's infrastructure and unlocks a new phase of adoption, where leading financial institutions can build on public blockchains with clarity and confidence."
The company said it filed its OCC application on June 30, 2025, with a conditional approval following in December 2025. The OCC granted conditional approvals to a handful of other digital asset firms at the same time, according to The Wall Street Journal. Other firms that have pursued or received OCC approvals include Coinbase, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets, Ripple, and Paxos.
The move comes as competition in the stablecoin market has intensified. Traditional financial firms have been seeking to issue their own stablecoins following passage of the GENIUS Act, which established a federal framework for payment stablecoins. Heading into Friday's announcement, Circle's shares had lost roughly a fifth of their value since the start of the year, leaving the company with a market capitalization of about $15.7 billion.
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