Circle completed the federal banking licensing process after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) granted the company final approval to establish a national trust bank.
FinTech company Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, announced that it received final OCC approval to launch First National Digital Currency Bank, N.A., which will operate as Circle National Trust.
The decision completed a licensing process that began with the company’s application in the summer of 2025 and continued with conditional approval in December of the same year.
Circle National Trust will operate as a national trust bank under the direct supervision of the OCC, the primary federal regulator of national banks and national trust institutions in the U.S. Circle said the new status will strengthen USDC’s position as regulated digital dollar infrastructure for payments, settlement, and capital markets activity.
Once operational, Circle National Trust will provide fiduciary digital asset custody services for Circle and its affiliates. Under the regulator approved business plan, the bank may later expand those services to a limited number of institutional clients, including banks and other financial institutions.
The federal charter also lays the groundwork for placing USDC reserve management under the OCC’s direct oversight in the future. Circle said federal supervision will increase transparency and strengthen trust in the stablecoin’s infrastructure.
Jeremy Allaire, Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Circle, said the launch of Circle National Trust would mark an important step toward integrating blockchain infrastructure into the U.S. financial system. According to Allaire, federal oversight of the trust bank will raise standards for transparency and corporate governance, while creating additional opportunities for leading financial institutions to build on public blockchain networks.
Circle continues to integrate blockchain technology and stablecoins into commercial and payment infrastructure. In 2026, the company launched a comprehensive stablecoin settlement platform built on the Circle Payments Network (CPN), its global payments infrastructure introduced in 2025. It also unveiled USDC Bridge to enable cross-chain transactions through the Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP).
