Circle receives final approval to establish a national trust bank

Custody for Circle and affiliates is the initial plan; reserve management is a future capability.

Capvise MediaEvent 10 Jul 2026Published 15 Oct 20261 min read

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency sign at its Washington headquarters. — Photo: The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency sign outside its Washington headquarters. The regulator is named in Circle's trust-bank approval; the image does not depict the approval itself. Credit: G. Edward Johnson; Comptroller of the Currency wall logo Washington DC 2025-02-10 13-19-10.jpg; CC BY 4.0; resized and converted to WebP. · CC BY 4.0 · Resized for web delivery

The development

Circle said on July 10 that it received final OCC approval to establish First National Digital Currency Bank, which will operate as Circle National Trust. It had received conditional approval in December 2025.

The planned national trust bank will initially provide fiduciary digital-asset custody for Circle and its affiliates upon opening. Its approved business plan allows for potentially serving a limited number of institutional customers later, depending on demand. Circle also describes management of the USDC reserve as a future capability. Those distinctions matter: approval to establish the trust bank does not mean every contemplated service has already launched. The announcement places the entity under OCC oversight, with the initial custody scope narrower than the company’s longer-term infrastructure ambitions.