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David Pokima
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The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) conditionally approved national trust bank charters for five digital asset firms on Friday, including Ripple, Circle, and Fidelity Digital Assets. The move formally integrates these entities into the federal banking system, granting them direct access to the Federal Reserve’s payment rails and pre-empting state-level oversight.
“New entrants into the federal banking sector are good for consumers, the banking industry, and the economy,” Comptroller Jonathan Gould said in the release.
The Approved List:
- New Charters: Circle’s First National Digital Currency Bank, Ripple National Trust Bank.
- Conversions (State to National): Paxos Trust Co., BitGo Bank & Trust, Fidelity Digital Assets.
This marks the first expansion of federal crypto banking charters since Anchorage Digital’s approval in 2021.
Washington’s Regulatory Blueprint Takes Shape
The approvals follow the July 18 enactment of the ‘GENIUS Act’ (Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins), which mandated a federal framework for the $314 billion stablecoin market.
Additionally, the OCC released Interpretive Letter 1188 on Tuesday (Dec. 9), explicitly permitting national banks to trade crypto assets on a “riskless principal” basis.
Market Reaction
Despite the structural liquidity upgrade, XRP ($2.00, -2.19%) showed no immediate volatility. Traders appear to have priced in the approval following the GENIUS Act’s passage.
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire noted the charter “deepens” the firm’s ability to settle USDC directly via the Fed, bypassing commercial bank intermediaries.
Institutional Shift: De-Risking Digital Finance
This is a liquidity infrastructure event, not a retail pump. By securing national charters, Circle and Paxos effectively remove the “commercial bank counterparty risk” that triggered the USDC depeg during the SVB collapse.
For desks, this means 24/7 settlement finality via FedMaster accounts is imminent. Expect the spread between onshore regulated stablecoins and offshore equivalents (USDT) to widen as institutions migrate capital to Fed-integrated rails.
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