Modern Treasury Seeks US National Trust Bank Charter for Stablecoin Custody
Key Takeaways
- •Modern Treasury has applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to charter a limited-purpose national trust bank that would offer digital asset custody and related fiat services.
- •If approved, the bank would allow customers to custody and move stablecoins alongside fiat currency, but it would not issue stablecoins or make loans.
- •The proposed entity would operate separately from Modern Treasury's existing payments business, which has facilitated more than $600 billion in payments across hundreds of organizations.
- •Co-founder and CEO Matt Marcus described stablecoins as foundational economic infrastructure for the future and said stablecoins are already fully integrated into the company's payments platform.
- •The application is part of a wider wave of trust charter filings from firms such as Bastion, Ripple, Circle, BitGo, Payward, Zerohash and Block, following the GENIUS Act's enactment in July 2025 as the first federal framework for payment stablecoins.
Payments infrastructure company Modern Treasury has applied to establish a national trust bank in the United States that would provide digital asset custody and related fiat services, becoming the latest payments firm to seek federal approval for stablecoin-related operations.
According to Monday's announcement, the company submitted an application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish Modern Treasury National Trust Bank. The OCC, a bureau of the US Treasury Department, charters and supervises national banks. If approved, the new entity would operate as a federally regulated, limited-purpose national trust bank — a charter type that allows firms to focus on specialized activities such as custody rather than offering full commercial banking services.
If the application is approved, Modern Treasury customers would be able to custody and move stablecoins — digital tokens typically pegged to fiat currencies such as the US dollar — and fiat currency through a single integrated service. The bank would not, however, issue stablecoins or make loans.
"We believe stablecoins are foundational economic infrastructure for the future," Modern Treasury co-founder and CEO Matt Marcus said, adding that the company has fully integrated stablecoins into its payments platform.
Modern Treasury said the proposed bank would operate separately from its existing payments business, which has facilitated more than $600 billion in payments across hundreds of organizations. The company builds payment operations software used by businesses to manage and automate money movement.
The application comes amid a broader push by crypto and payments companies for national trust bank charters, which allow digital asset firms to place custody and settlement activities federal supervision without becoming full-service banks. Bastion and Ripple have received conditional approvals, while Circle and BitGo have received final approvals. Kraken parent Payward, Zerohash and Block have also submitted applications. The push has coincided with a shift in US stablecoin policy: the GENIUS Act, enacted in July 2025, established the first federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins. Modern Treasury's application now awaits the OCC's review — the same process through which its peers have secured conditional and final approvals.
