Digital Chamber Defends OCC Charters for Coinbase, Ripple

The Digital Chamber, a crypto industry trade group, asked the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to defend recent national trust bank charters issued to crypto firms and to clarify supervisory expectations for trust banks serving crypto businesses. The letter was sent Tuesday to Comptroller Jonathan Gould and named firms that have received approvals in the past year, including Coinbase, Circle, Ripple, Paxos, BitGo, Fidelity, Crypto.com, Stripe and Protego.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren wrote to the OCC last Monday arguing the charters may violate the National Bank Act by allowing crypto companies to perform bank-like functions while avoiding the full set of bank regulations. In her letter she said the approvals create “serious risks” for the safety and soundness of the U.S. banking system and asked the regulator to explain the legal basis for the charters and how it will enforce standards if chartered firms expand into lending, payments or other services that resemble traditional banking.

The Digital Chamber’s letter referenced last year’s passage of the GENIUS Act, which created a federal pathway for stablecoin issuance, and argued that Congress authorized federal agencies to allow certain bank-like privileges for stablecoin issuers. “We strongly encourage the OCC to defend these charter approvals and continue developing clear supervisory expectations for trust banks,” the group wrote. Digital Chamber CEO Cody Carbone added that Congress created a regulated category of stablecoin issuers and the OCC should exercise its chartering authority.

National trust companies differ from traditional commercial banks in key regulatory ways. Trust banks generally provide fiduciary services such as asset custody and management and typically do not take customer deposits insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The crypto firms that obtained charters have said they plan to use trust banks to handle issuance, redemption and custody of stablecoins and the funds that back those tokens rather than to accept FDIC-insured deposits.

The exchange between Warren and the Digital Chamber comes as lawmakers and federal agencies work on rules for stablecoins and crypto services. The OCC has used national trust charters to provide federal supervision of fiduciary activities, and industry letters to the regulator ask it to uphold the approvals and set clear oversight expectations for trust banks serving crypto clients.