Circle, the company behind one of the world’s largest stablecoins, announced Friday that it has received final approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to open a national trust bank — a move that sent its stock price jumping 10% before markets officially opened.
The newly granted charter gives Circle the authority to serve as custodian for its own financial reserves and to hold cryptocurrency assets on behalf of large institutional clients.
Circle’s CEO Jeremy Allaire called the development a landmark moment. “OCC approval to establish Circle National Trust marks a defining step in bringing blockchain technology and digital assets into the core of the U.S. financial system,” he said in an official statement.
With the approval in place, Circle’s trust bank will now operate under direct federal supervision by the OCC, which serves as the main regulatory authority over national lenders and trust banks.
The milestone reflects a broader trend in the digital asset industry. As regulatory barriers have loosened over the past year, crypto companies have been pushing deeper into traditional financial services — seeking banking licenses, custody operations, and payment platforms.
Circle is the issuer of USDC, a stablecoin pegged to the value of the U.S. dollar. Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency engineered to hold a consistent value — typically by maintaining a one-to-one ratio with the dollar — and are commonly used to move money between different crypto tokens. According to data from CoinGecko, USDC currently carries a market value of roughly $73.2 billion.
Despite Friday’s surge, Circle shares have had a rough year overall, declining 20.5% since January through their most recent closing price. That performance gives the company a market capitalization of approximately $15.7 billion, based on figures from LSEG.
