Circle shares rise after OCC approves national trust bank charter

Circle shares rose more than 12% in early trading Friday after the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency approved the stablecoin issuer to operate as a national trust bank, according to the company. The authorization allows Circle to bring reserve management for its regulated stablecoins, chiefly USDC, under a federally supervised trust bank structure.

Circle said the new entity will be called Circle National Trust. USDC, its main dollar-linked token, has more than $73 billion in circulation, according to the company.

The charter changes how Circle can oversee assets backing its tokens. Stablecoins such as USDC are designed to maintain a fixed value against a reference asset, in this case the U.S. dollar, and issuers hold reserves such as cash and Treasury securities to support redemptions. Circle previously relied on outside banks and custodians to hold those assets, according to the company.

The OCC approval does not authorize Circle to operate as a commercial bank. The company will not have approval under this charter to take deposits or make loans.

Federal oversight replaces a state-by-state model

The approval gives Circle a national bank regulator, rather than leaving the company only with state-based oversight for this part of its business. For financial technology and digital asset firms, state regimes can require compliance with multiple separate rulebooks, which can increase operating complexity and costs.

The OCC’s decision comes as digital asset companies seek a larger role in regulated financial infrastructure. Recent activity at the regulator has included approvals or applications involving Coinbase, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets, Ripple and Paxos, according to CNBC.

The movement reflects a wider push among crypto firms to control more of the regulated financial services chain. For stablecoin issuers, custody of reserves is a central function because confidence in the token depends on whether users can redeem it for dollars at par and whether the assets backing it are held under credible supervision.

Stablecoin competition intensifies

The approval also arrives after Washington established a federal framework for payment stablecoins through the GENIUS Act nearly a year ago, according to CNBC. That legislation gave the sector more regulatory clarity and helped sharpen competition around digital dollars used for payments and settlement.

Traditional financial firms have shown growing interest in issuing their own stablecoins, according to CNBC. Such products can give banks and financial platforms a way to capture payment activity, maintain closer customer relationships and build services around programmable dollar tokens rather than relying on third-party issuers.

For Circle, the national trust bank charter strengthens its position as regulated infrastructure for institutional users, according to CNBC. The company’s market reaction on Friday indicated investors viewed the OCC approval as material to Circle’s competitive position, though the charter leaves the firm outside the business of ordinary commercial banking.

This story draws on original reporting from CNBC.