Circle approved by OCC to establish national trust bank
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Circle approved by OCC to establish national trust bank 10 July 2026US Reporter: Matthew Challis
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Circle has received approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish First National Digital Currency Bank, its national trust bank that will operate under Circle National Trust.
As a result of the approval, Circle National Trust will be placed directly under US federal oversight by the OCC and will bring the infrastructure of USDC, Circle’s stablecoin, into a federal banking framework.
Upon opening, the firm says its bank will offer fiduciary digital asset custody services for Circle and its affiliates, with its charter also designed to allow for future capabilities, such as management of the USDC Reserve.
According to Circle, its bank will “advance USDC’s role as a trusted, federally regulated digital dollar infrastructure” for payments, settlement, and capital markets activity, intended to support the US dollar in an “increasingly digital global economy”.
The original application was submitted in June 2025, with conditional authorisation granted in December 2025 by the OCC.
Speaking on the new bank, Jeremy Allaire, co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Circle, says: “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.”
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