The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced Tuesday that it remains committed to reviving de novo bank chartering — a push that has already created a federal regulatory pathway for several major cryptocurrency companies.

In a statement, the regulator said reinvigorating new bank formation continues to be a priority and praised the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) for its recent parallel efforts on deposit insurance review. For prospective banks, the two approvals work in tandem: the OCC grants the charter, while FDIC deposit insurance is a separate prerequisite for institutions seeking to accept deposits backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.

"De novo chartering is a sign of a healthy banking system," said Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan V. Gould, noting that the FDIC's updated review process for deposit insurance applications aligns with the OCC's initiative to arrest the long decline in new charters.

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De novo chartering — the process of establishing entirely new banks rather than acquiring existing ones — has fallen sharply over the past 15 years. From 2011 through 2014, the OCC received an average of fewer than four charter applications annually, with some years yielding none at all.

"For more than a decade, regulators signaled that those seeking a federal bank charter and federal deposit insurance need not apply," Gould said. "Entities that engage in legally permissible activities, including those involving digital assets and other novel technologies, should have a path to becoming a national bank. America and the OCC are once again open for business."

The trend has reversed markedly. The OCC has received 40 de novo applications over the past 18 months, including filings for national trust banks — a charter category the agency has administered for decades. National trust banks differ from full-service commercial banks: they are authorized to exercise fiduciary powers such as asset custody and wealth management, but typically do not accept retail deposits or make loans in the traditional sense. In many instances, the regulator has issued decisions within 120 days of receiving a complete application.

Erebor Bank, N.A., backed by Palmer Luckey, Joe Lonsdale, and Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, became the first full-service national bank in five years to receive final approval and begin operations.

Several prominent crypto firms have secured conditional approval, including Ripple, Circle, Crypto.com, and Paxos. World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance platform backed by Donald Trump, has also submitted an application, aiming to encourage institutional adoption of its native stablecoin, USD1.

The charter's appeal is structural: it enables crypto companies to custody client assets and settle trades within a federally regulated framework. A national charter also brings the entity under a unified federal supervisory regime, which can reduce the compliance burden of navigating individual state-level licensing regimes across dozens of jurisdictions — a longstanding operational challenge for digital asset firms. For an exchange like Coinbase — whose application remains under review — a national trust bank charter would allow it to serve as a federally recognized crypto custodian, managing assets for larger institutional clients.

Opposition remains, however. In December, the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) urged the OCC to reject Coinbase's national trust bank charter application, asserting the exchange possesses "demonstrably flawed risk and control functions" and operates under governance that "prevents independent oversight."

In February, the American Bankers Association — the largest banking lobby in the United States — called on the OCC to decelerate its review of crypto firms' charter applications.

Beneath the procedural concerns lies a competitive turf war. A central grievance from traditional banks involves stablecoins: companies such as Coinbase seek to offer users rewards for holding the tokens, a practice banks argue is unfair and could erode their deposit base.

The OCC says it will continue encouraging new bank formation and reinforcing the resilience of the federal banking system.

Originally published by Bitcoin Magazine, written by Mathew Di Salvo.