TLDR
US Senator Elizabeth Warren is challenging how the OCC granted national trust bank charters to crypto firms, saying some approvals may violate the National Bank Act.
- Warren sent a detailed letter accusing OCC chief Jonathan Gould of improperly approving at least nine crypto trust charters, including for Coinbase, Ripple, Circle, Paxos, BitGo, Fidelity, Crypto.com, and Stripe.
- These national trust charters let crypto firms offer custody, payments, lending, and stablecoin services under a lighter trust framework instead of full national bank regulation, which Warren calls dangerous regulatory arbitrage.
- The OCCs response, potential hearings, and parallel bills like the CLARITY Act will determine whether this path into the US banking system stays open, is tightened, or is rolled back.
Deep Dive
1. Warrens Allegations Against The OCC
Warrens new letter to Comptroller Jonathan Gould alleges that since late 2025 the OCC has approved or conditionally approved at least nine national trust bank charters for crypto firms including Ripple, Circle, Paxos, Fidelity Digital Asset Services, BitGo, Coinbase, Crypto.com and Stripes Bridge unit. In her view, these firms plan to engage in activities that go far beyond the narrow set of activities permitted by law for national trust companies, which she argues makes the approvals a de facto rewrite of the National Bank Act.
She calls these firms effectively crypto banks that want to evade the fundamental safeguards and obligations that come with being a bank, and demands full charter applications, legal analyses, and all communications with Donald Trump and his family about these approvals by June 1, 2026, according to Senate banking summaries and reporting on her letter.
2. What Crypto Trust Charters Do
A national trust charter is a federal license that allows a company to provide fiduciary and custodial services for assets, including digital assets, under OCC supervision but without offering FDIC insured deposits or traditional commercial lending. Crypto firms have pursued this route as a way to custody assets, run stablecoin and settlement infrastructure, and serve institutions nationwide without going through the heavier process of becoming full national banks.
The OCC has previously argued that activities like crypto custody, settlement, and riskless principal trading can fit within the business of banking when properly supervised, which is why these charters have been granted. Warrens core claim, reflected in community and media writeups of her letter, is that the actual business plans of these crypto trusts center on payments, lending, and stablecoin operations that look like banking, not narrow fiduciary trust work.
The fight is not about whether crypto can be regulated, but about whether it should get a relatively lighter banking entry route compared with traditional banks.
3. What To Watch Next For Crypto
Warren has asked the OCC to deliver documents by early June, and she sits in Senate Banking leadership, so follow up could include public hearings, more aggressive oversight, or legislative attempts to limit OCC authority over crypto charters. Industry and banking groups are already split: trade groups for traditional banks have urged the OCC to slow or pause crypto trust approvals, while digital asset firms see these charters as a critical bridge to institutional adoption.
In parallel, the CLARITY Act, a broader crypto market structure bill, is advancing through the Senate and could eventually define clearer roles for the SEC, CFTC, and banking regulators over digital assets. How the OCC responds to Warren, and whether Congress moves to codify or clip its charter power, will shape how easily large crypto platforms can integrate into the US banking system over the next few years.
For users and institutions, the outcome will influence how many large, federally supervised crypto banks exist in the US and how tightly their activities around custody, lending, and stablecoins are constrained.
Conclusion
Warrens challenge puts a spotlight on a key regulatory gateway that crypto firms have used to gain banking style credibility without full bank status. Whether regulators defend or retreat from these trust charters will determine how smoothly crypto infrastructure can plug into traditional finance, and how much regulatory risk sits over custody, stablecoins, and crypto banking services in the United States.
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