Over a Dozen Crypto Firms Pursuing OCC Trust Charters
Some are eyeing access to coveted Fed Master Accounts
Welcome to the Wednesday edition of the Crypto In America newsletter! More than a dozen crypto firms, encouraged by the friendlier leadership at one of the nation’s top banking regulators, are applying for banking licenses.
At least 15 crypto and fintech companies have pending applications for trust charters with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, setting up a regulatory power struggle with the Federal Reserve, Crypto In America has learned.
The surge in applications comes as the OCC under the crypto-friendly Trump administration has signaled it will be more receptive to crypto firms looking to gain access to the banking ecosystem.
While many of the firms, like Circle and BitGo, are looking to streamline operations by becoming further integrated within traditional financial systems, some are pursuing OCC trust charters as a strategic path to obtaining a coveted Fed master account — a powerful tool that grants direct access to the central bank’s payment systems. That access could allow crypto firms to effectively bypass traditional banks and operate with the kind of financial infrastructure normally reserved for federally regulated depository institutions.
To date, no crypto entity has successfully secured a Master Account, despite ongoing efforts by firms like Wyoming-based Custodia Bank, which is suing the Federal Reserve over its denied application. Meanwhile, the White House is sitting on an executive order that would require the Fed to formally consider crypto-native companies for Master Account access, two sources familiar tell Crypto In America.
Greenlighting crypto firms for OCC trust charters began with Brian Brooks, the crypto-friendly former Acting Comptroller, who approved the first crypto trust charter for Anchorage and granted preliminary approval to stablecoin issuer Paxos in 2021. Now, with Jonathan Gould—Brooks’ protege—set to be confirmed as the new head of the OCC, there are signs the agency may return to a more liberal stance on chartering crypto firms after a four-year hiatus during the Biden administration.
An OCC spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
But the Fed won’t be so easily convinced. It’s declined to treat OCC trust-chartered crypto firms as automatically eligible for Master Accounts, citing concerns around systemic risk and regulatory arbitrage. Meanwhile, traditional institutions like Bank of America are backing the Fed, warning that giving more lightly regulated trust firms access to central bank infrastructure undermines the two-tier banking system and opens the door to risky disruption.
Lobbying efforts by crypto firms for banking access are ramping up as Congress prepares to debate the Senate’s stablecoin legislation—the GENIUS Act—which could classify stablecoin issuers as financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act, requiring them to report suspicious activity and verify customers.
Crypto Policy, Safe Harbors & Building in the U.S.: A Conversation with Miles Jennings of a16z
“Crypto is one of the most bipartisan issues in D.C. right now — even if it doesn’t always feel that way.”
In a wide-ranging conversation with Crypto In America, Miles Jennings, General Counsel and Head of Policy at a16z crypto, shared a deep dive into how policy, legal frameworks, and on-the-ground builder sentiment are converging to define crypto’s future in the U.S.
In Episode 7, Jennings unpacked how projects can operate legally in the U.S., why safe harbors and legal frameworks for digital assets matter, Silicon Valley’s influence in government, and Andreessen Horowitz’s role in helping crypto gain bipartisan support in D.C.
Catch the episode on all platforms here.
Midweek Recap
ICYMI. Here are some of the biggest stories so far this week:
Bitcoin briefly surpassed tech giant Google in market cap on Wednesday morning, becoming the fifth-largest asset in the world, behind gold, Apple, Microsoft, and NVIDIA. The world’s largest digital asset is trading up over 10% this week.
Paul Atkins has officially started his tenure as the 34th Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. During his swearing-in ceremony at the Oval Office on Tuesday, Atkins pledged to work to protect investors from fraud, keep politics out of securities laws and provide a firm regulatory foundation for digital assets.
Trump Media has finalized the deal it announced in March with crypto exchange Crypto.com and asset manager Yorkville America Digital to launch TruthFi ETFs, which will incorporate U.S. cryptocurrencies and American-made investments. The ETFs are expected to launch later this year, backed by up to $250M from Trump Media.
The Oregon Attorney General suing Coinbase is claiming around 31 crypto tokens including XRP, Cardano, Solana, ChainLink, and Uniswap were offered and sold by the exchange as illegal investment contracts under Oregon state law. The lawsuit, filed last week by Democratic AG Dan Rayfield, echoes the SEC’s 2023 case against Coinbase, dismissed in February, but goes further, classifying 18 additional tokens as “crypto securities.”
The SEC’s Division of Enforcement gave U.S. crypto firm Unicoin a deadline of April 18 to engage in settlement talks over allegations that the company knowingly violated both registration and antifraud provisions of federal securities law. But CEO Alex Konanykhin is refusing to take the bait, telling Eleanor Terrett he plans to fight the case in court and calling the regulator’s actions “grotesque.”
Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald is reportedly teaming up with stablecoin giant Tether, its sister company Bitfinex, and Japanese investment powerhouse SoftBank to launch a $3 billion Bitcoin acquisition fund. Cantor CEO Brandon Lutnick - the son of former CEO and current U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick - aims to replicate MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin investment playbook.
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