Bankers take legal action against to reverse OCC trust-bank guideline utilized by crypto companies

The Independent Community Bankers of America took legal action against the OCC in federal court in Washington on Oct. 2, 2 weeks after the company authorized Agora National Trust Bank, Catena Trust Bank and Bastion Platforms.

American Banker reported that the problem asked the court to leave the OCC’s nationwide trust bank guideline and Interpretive Letter 1176. It argued the company surpassed its authority by broadening limited-purpose trust charters for fintech and crypto companies.

ICBA states the OCC has actually authorized or conditionally authorized 21 trust banks13 of them connected to crypto.

Six Nations Banks lost the applicant-by-applicant battle versus crypto companies

Banking groups objected business by business, and the OCC kept authorizing. 5 crypto-linked nationwide trust applications, consisting of BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets, First National Digital Currency Bank, Paxos and Ripple-linked candidates, won choices in December 2025.

Bridge, National Digital Trust and Foris DAX, the moms and dad of Crypto.com, followed in February, Coinbase in April and Laser Digital in May. Agora, Catena and Bastion showed up Sept. 18, and numerous of these approvals are conditional or initial.

The OCC settled its nationwide trust bank guideline in February, efficient April 1. It changed the expression “fiduciary activities” with the statute’s more comprehensive phrasing, “the operations of a trust business and activities associated thereto.”

The OCC states the language leaves its chartering authority undamaged which nationwide trust banks have actually long carried out some nonfiduciary work, consisting of custody. It indicates 12 U.S.C. 24(Seventh) as authority for nonfiduciary custody and associated activities.

ICBA’s grievance checks out the exact same guideline as extending a limited-purpose trust charter to cover non-depository, non-fiduciary crypto companies under a lighter structure than guaranteed banks deal with.

An objection to Coinbase or Ripple asks the company to reject one candidate. A fit over the guideline asks a judge to choose the scope of authority behind every charter that counts on it.

Six Nations The OCC stated a court would choose

In the February guideline, the OCC pointed out the Supreme Court’s Loper Bright choice. It stated that when a celebration with standing conflicts whether the National Bank Act licenses a nationwide trust bank charter, courts need to work out independent judgment on the statutory concern.

That is the evaluation ICBA now demands. The OCC invested 2026 authorizing crypto trust charters while on record that a court would settle their legal basis.

Direct exposure differs with organization strategy, with plain fiduciary custody outermost from the conflict and nonfiduciary custody, stablecoin issuance and reserves, payments, settlement, conversion, and execution closest to it.

Coinbase’s authorized strategy covers digital possession custody as a fiduciary plus transactional services connected to custodied possessions, and the OCC protected it as trust-company operations or associated activities under fiduciary authority and 24(Seventh).

Agora prepares dollar-backed stablecoin issuance, reserve upkeep, nonfiduciary custody, and payment and settlement services. Catena integrates custody, financial investment management, and trust services with conversion, cleaning, and execution, and Bastion uses white-label stablecoin issuance, custodial wallets, conversion, and provider services.

Foris DAX’s strategy couples custody with trade settlement and staking, and Bridge’s preliminary approval covers custody, stablecoin issuance and orchestration, and reserve management.

ICBA looks for vacatur plus declaratory and injunctive relief. What occurs to existing charters depends upon the order a judge composes, consisting of how it deals with last approvals, conditional approvals and activities with independent statutory assistance.

The OCC stated in August that it had actually gotten 40 de novo charter applications over about 18 months, and Comptroller Jonathan Gould stated 23 of them included digital properties.

The firm’s digital-asset licensing page lists pending candidates, consisting of zerohash, Dakota National Trust Bank, Payward (Kraken), Lorum National Trust Bank, EDX Trust and PAYO Digital Bank.

Whether the OCC keeps processing those applications on the very same terms while the court weighs the guideline is the open concern for each of them.

Six Nations Where the court crypto test leads

If the court sides with the OCC, the nationwide trust bank ends up being a firmer federal path for crypto custody and stablecoin facilities.

JPMorgan sees $500 billion by 2028, Coinbase’s design centers on $1.2 trillion by the end of 2028, and Standard Chartered anticipates $2 trillion already. Citi’s 2030 cases range from $1.9 trillion in its base circumstance to $4 trillion in its most positive one.

FDIC-insured banks held about $20.7 trillion in deposits in the 2nd quarter, so $500 billion to $2 trillion equates to approximately 2.4% to 9.7% of that base. For Bitcoin, a win would deepen bank-supervised custody and settlement-linked services for organizations.

If the court abandons or narrows the guideline or the letter, the impact lands hardest on strategies developed around stablecoin issuance, reserves, nonfiduciary custody, conversion, payments and settlement.

Those companies may reorganize activities into affiliates, state trust business or partner-bank plans, and pending charters might deal with harder evaluation. Bitcoin custody itself might remain readily available, with the federal wrapper less versatile around nearby services such as conversion, execution, settlement, staking-like services and security motion.

The San Francisco Fed approximates stablecoin companies’ Treasury need might approximately double to about $400 billion by 2030, which provides the response weight beyond crypto.

Just how much nonfiduciary market facilities can sit inside a nationwide trust bank is now a concern for a federal judge, which is where the OCC stated it would land.