رؤى رئيسية:
- Coinbase faces a legal challenge after ICBA sued the OCC over crypto trust charters.
- Circle and Crypto.com have also pursued OCC trust banking approvals.
- The lawsuit adds pressure to wider crypto banking and stablecoin policy debates.
Coinbase and other crypto heavyweights are once again facing the prospect of regulatory backlash against their efforts to form nationally chartered banks with ties to crypto.
The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) filed a lawsuit against the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) on Oct 2, 2026, arguing that it does not have the authority to issue national trust bank charters to “entities engaged in a significant amount of non-fiduciary activities.”
The lawsuit specifically cites a rule and accompanying guidance that the OCC issued to allow the creation of a new type of trust banks that focus on crypto.
Coinbase, Circle, and Crypto.com are among the companies that have taken advantage of this particular loophole.
This is not a conflict about the legitimacy of the crypto business in the United States. Rather, it is a discussion about the extent to which a national trust charter can support such an enterprise. In other words, the Coinbase case is a test of limits.
Coinbase Has Already Crossed the Charter Line
This is a strange time for this particular issue to emerge, considering that Coinbase had already passed the most stressful moment of its banking adventure.
وفقًا لـ information obtained from the OCC, Coinbase’s application to create the Coinbase National Trust Company was submitted on Oct 3, 2025, and approved by the agency on April 2, 2026.
The company notes that the approval is conditional and that the new entity will specialize in custody and market infrastructure, not be a commercial bank. Moreover, this difference is precisely what the lawsuit is all about.
National trust banks are not regular banks. They are different, and this is precisely the reason why they were created. Trust banks allow people to perform transactions that regular banks categorically refuse to provide.
Coinbase has said its proposed entity would not take retail deposits or engage in fractional-reserve banking.
Circle makes a similar distinction. Its Circle National Trust entity does not accept deposits or make loans, and digital assets held there are not FDIC-insured.
ICBA argues that this structure creates a different regulatory burden from that faced by traditional community banks.
“Congress did not create the national trust charter as a side door into the banking system,” ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey said.
The Growing Charter Queue from Crypto Entities
Circle has already reached the final approval stage. The company said on July 10 that the OCC approved First National Digital Currency Bank, N.A., which operates as Circle National Trust. The entity is intended to provide institutional digital asset custody under federal oversight.
Crypto.com, by comparison, remains at an earlier stage. The OCC granted preliminary conditional approval on Feb. 20 for Foris DAX National Trust Bank, which plans to operate as Crypto.com National Trust Bank.
The proposed bank would offer custody, staking, and related services, but the OCC has not yet granted final authorization to commence business. The lawsuit does not mean Coinbase, Circle, or Crypto.com have automatically lost their approvals.
ICBA is instead challenging the regulatory framework the OCC uses for national trust banks, while separately asking the court to vacate Protego’s conditional charter.
The OCC has defended the underlying rule on a different legal basis. The February final rule clarifies the longstanding authority of national trust banks to conduct certain non-fiduciary activities related to trust-company operations.
The agency said the change would neither expand nor contract its chartering authority.
Coinbase Faces OCC Oversight as Banking Groups Challenge Crypto Charters
The regulatory debate reaches beyond custody. The OCC’s digital assets licensing records show a growing pipeline of firms seeking national bank or trust charters, including Payward National Trust Company, Zerohash National Trust Bank, and EDX Trust.
A federal charter would place specific digital-asset activities at Coinbase, Circle, and Crypto.com under direct OCC supervision.
ICBA argues, however, that national trust banks operating without deposits are not subject to some of the same requirements as insured depository institutions, including FDIC insurance, certain capital and liquidity standards, and Community Reinvestment Act obligations. That argument also connects the lawsuit to the broader battle over stablecoins.
Banking groups have spent months pressing Congress to tighten the CLARITY Act’s treatment of stablecoin interest, yield, and rewards.
In September, ICBA and other banking associations urged senators to strengthen those restrictions, arguing that stablecoins should remain transactional products rather than substitutes for bank deposits.
The Coin Republic has likewise tracked the banking industry’s resistance to stablecoin yield products, describing the debate as a contest over whether digital assets could begin competing more directly with traditional savings products. The OCC lawsuit now moves that broader disagreement into the courts.
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