Crypto industry group backs OCC charter approvals amid banks' legal challenge

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Crypto group backs OCC charter approvals

Highlights

The Crypto Council for Innovation supports the OCC's national trust charter approvals for crypto companies and criticizes the ICBA lawsuit as anti-innovation.
ICBA filed a lawsuit on Friday alleging the OCC granted bank charters to crypto firms like World Liberty Financial, Circle, and Ripple without adequate safeguards or compliance with banking standards.
Lawmakers scrutinize OCC's approval of World Liberty Financial, co-founded by Trump family members, amid regulatory probes and concerns over the weakening of traditional bank protections.

Charter dispute centers on competition and bank safeguards

As reported by Cointelegraph, the Crypto Council for Innovation is backing the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's approvals and conditional approvals for crypto companies seeking national trust charters, while criticizing a lawsuit from the Independent Community Bankers of America as an effort to curb payments innovation and competition in financial services.

On Monday, CCI CEO Ji Hun Kim says the ICBA complaint is a clear attempt to resist national trust charters and broader financial innovation. The advocacy group supports the OCC's decisions even as some lawmakers argue that crypto exchanges want the credibility of a bank charter without taking on the full safeguards and obligations that apply to banks.

The ICBA legal action, filed on Friday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges that the OCC approved U.S. bank charters for entities including crypto companies without sufficient safeguards or compliance with standards normally applied to banks. In a Friday statement, ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey says Congress did not create the national trust charter as a way for crypto firms to enter the banking system without Community Reinvestment Act obligations, consolidated supervision, capital and liquidity standards, and FDIC insurance requirements that apply to insured depository institutions.

Approvals draw political and regulatory scrutiny

Among the applicants approved or conditionally approved by the OCC under President Trump are World Liberty Financial, Circle, Ripple, Fidelity Digital Assets, BitGo and Paxos.

Lawmakers are directing particular criticism at the World Liberty approval, which comes under OCC head Jonathan Gould, Trump's pick who has served since July 2025. Members of the Trump family co-founded the crypto company, which is also facing probes over alleged ties to the royal families of the United Arab Emirates.

The dispute highlights a broader fight over whether national trust charters can serve as a workable regulatory path for crypto firms or whether they weaken core banking protections. For the digital asset sector, the outcome could influence how companies pursue federal oversight, payments activities and expansion within the U.S. financial system.

Our earlier coverage highlighted how the crypto industry ramped up election spending after the CLARITY Act stalled in the Senate, with Fairshake and affiliated super PACs backing dozens of House candidates from both parties. We noted that the outcome of key races could influence which lawmakers steer U.S. crypto policy next—and how quickly major regulatory priorities move forward.

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